Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
Entirely agree. I confess to enjoying a moment of prurient enjoyment at the revelation - but still from what I know about him, Gates remains one of the world's heroes.
Real humans are complex, shocker.
Everyone does good and bad things. Some more of one than the other.
I don't think we should be excusing bad things on the basis of the good things a person did - I thought we left that idea behind with the Reformation and the revolt against the selling of indulgences.
We want to simplify things and think of some people as evil and some as good - hence what isam was talking about wrt the attempt to beatify victims of police shootings - but really it's people's actions and choices that are good and evil, and those are not inherent, or inevitable, and that makes the evil actions harder to accept, because they didn't have to happen. Whereas, if they're simply the result of an irredeemable evil nature then they're a bit more inevitable and a bit easier to accept as just part of the world.
BIG news from @bloomberg.com, which confirms that ICE has gone ahead and *purchased* multiple commercial warehouses with the aim of converting them into mass detention camps.
This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — literal warehousing of people. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
If you think that is comparable to what ICE are planning then you are dumber than a box of rocks.
We're further to the right of the Trump administration in terms of having zero tolerance for local government standing in the way of immigration enforcement. There's no place for santuary cities in the UK.
On the other hand, we don't have random executions of immigration protestors, or a loony paramiilitary group behind them, that I know of. The U.S. is beginning to look like Brazil in the 1970s.
Although we did randomly execute one Brazilian on a tube train.
Then promoted the commander of that operation.
(In fairness Richard Henriques, presiding over a subsequent case about it, later commented that he congratulated the jury on their wisdom in specifically exonerating Cressida Dick from all blame).
@JoshEakle I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:
The sheer number of politically diverse and otherwise unrelated figures who abruptly reversed course in 2024 to rally around Trump suggests something more than coincidence.
Everyone should consider the possibility that many of them are implicated in serious wrongdoing and that Trump offered protection or a cover-up in return for their loyalty.
What makes this even more obscene is how many names in the Epstein files overlap with Trump’s cabinet, inner circle, major supporters, etc.
He’s going to dine out on this for the rest of his life.
Ha, that once in a blue moon that he got one right?
Or did he also say gold and silver were a buy, so he’d be right one way or the other?
I had a quick look at his feed. He’s a bull on gold but bearish on silver for a while.
Stopped clock and all that !
Silvers worst day since, and no one is going to remember this, 1792.
Silver down 20%, back to where it was, err, checks notes, three weeks ago!
If I’d bought some for Christmas I’d still be 20% up, that’s how crazy the market has been this month.
In numeric terms it’s fallen more today than its value was 12 months ago. 😀
The market is nuts but the new Fed Chair pick seems quite a good one from Trump.
Yeah totally crazy markets, silver especially had to correct at some point, and probably has some way to fall still.
Not done too much research into new Fed guy yet, but the general reaction seems positive. Powell is best out, he’s made the position too political, basically refusing to cut rates because he disagrees with Trump on tariffs and thinks there’s inflation just around the corner. US inflation is under 3% and falling.
It was 2.7% in December and 2.7% in November, which I would describe as flat rather than “falling”. (There was no figure published for October.)
Gold Standard. The occupy the position Angus Reid once held.
I am genuinely surpirsed that, with all the Trump stuff recently as well as the connections with Putin, the Reform vote is holding up so well. For all that we are all interested in Trump and he is a bad joke figure to much of the British public, I wonder if there is a widespread decoupling between foreign and domestic issues in the eyes of the electorate that prevents Reform from suffering from their idiotic foreign policy positions.
I'm surprised you're surprised. Most voters are not interested at all in foreign affairs, much as one wishes they were.
And the failure to draw that connection could the biggest mistake.
Becauss Reform's leader, and many of their representatives, idolise a foreign leader who is seeking authoritarian rule, they are quite simply the biggest threat British parliamentary democracy has faced in the modern era.
I think that Reform would be dire, in government. But, nothing suggests to me that they represent an existential threat to democracy.
Why not?
Trump and his supporters have shown a complete disregard for law, and democratic norms. And, they are well-armed.
I see no evidence that that is true of Reform.
But Reform do laud Trump and his supporters.
They also had a (presumably) co-ordinated blitz on social media from their various FB constituency pages, revealing the Green candidate for Gorton and Denton to be a much discredited trans woman. This from the Party that sues for breaches of electoral law at the slightest opportunity. If that isn't a disregard for law and democratic norms then it's a pretty high bar.
@JoshEakle I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:
The sheer number of politically diverse and otherwise unrelated figures who abruptly reversed course in 2024 to rally around Trump suggests something more than coincidence.
Everyone should consider the possibility that many of them are implicated in serious wrongdoing and that Trump offered protection or a cover-up in return for their loyalty.
What makes this even more obscene is how many names in the Epstein files overlap with Trump’s cabinet, inner circle, major supporters, etc.
It's embarrassing that every major network is not covering the shocking and terrible revelations about Donald Trump that were released today by the Dept of Justice. https://x.com/donwinslow/status/2017323351866544447
What are the revelations - nothing so far on the live feed on guardian. Hoping for a magic bullet but also wary of small beer being hyped and then lessening the effect if something substantial comes.
The DOJ posted a number of files including serious allegations about Trump, and took them down shortly after.
Quite what's going on is hard to say - and they've taken weeks to plan this release (in violation of the law passed by Congress), so it's possible that this is deliberate disinformation - but it's being given very little notice.
Some of those accusations were already known about. Some were not.
At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack (sic) on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. https://x.com/AGPamBondi/status/2017238803639845115
Well: I can see why the protestors faced legal action (albeit it may be protected behaviour). But Don Lemon was just reporting - and interviewing everyone by the looks of it.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
This might seem like a frivolous example - one thing that really annoys me about cashless payments is illustrated by ice cream vans: if it's a cashless business, a lot of them won't hand you the ice cream until they've seen the payment go through on their payment device. If they're accepting cash from you, they usually hand you the ice cream first, and you give them the money next. It's really offputting the first time you experience the "not giving you the food yet" version because it's as if they're assuming you might be some sort of swindler who's trying to take it without paying for it.
He’s going to dine out on this for the rest of his life.
The thing about precious metals and why they have real value, unlike vapourcoins, is they have a practical use.
Not just in jewellry, but in manufacturing, medicines, electronics and much more.
They are far more than shiny metals.
They are also driven by speculation as much as actual use. Trump's announcement of a new man at the Fed has seen precipitate falls in both gold and silver today.
Oh, absolutely, speculation is involved.
But at their core though, they are legitimately precious.
There's speculation in the price of all commodities, but for most of them the market corrects before too long due to actual demand and supply as opposed to predicted demand and supply.
Gold is uniquely a bit different. There's about 36,000 tons of gold held by central banks - roughly ten years of global gold production. And then more held by private investors - my latest I have a few grams myself in a vault in London. It's a market much more distorted than that for other commodities.
They also had a (presumably) co-ordinated blitz on social media from their various FB constituency pages, revealing the Green candidate for Gorton and Denton to be a much discredited trans woman. This from the Party that sues for breaches of electoral law at the slightest opportunity. If that isn't a disregard for law and democratic norms then it's a pretty high bar.
Hannah Spencer, leader of the Green group on Trafford council, who stood against Burnham in the 2024 Greater Manchester mayoral election, and is now the Gorton and Denton candidate against Reform.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
"Sex worker"
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
It is precisely because I am sharp and worldly" and have seen how men of wealth and in society treat the women whose bodies they buy that I don't buy the Pretty Woman fable men like to fool themselves into believing.
They also had a (presumably) co-ordinated blitz on social media from their various FB constituency pages, revealing the Green candidate for Gorton and Denton to be a much discredited trans woman. This from the Party that sues for breaches of electoral law at the slightest opportunity. If that isn't a disregard for law and democratic norms then it's a pretty high bar.
Hannah Spencer, leader of the Green group on Trafford council, who stood against Burnham in the 2024 Greater Manchester mayoral election, and is now the Gorton and Denton candidate against Reform.
At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack (sic) on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. https://x.com/AGPamBondi/status/2017238803639845115
Well: I can see why the protestors faced legal action (albeit it may be protected behaviour). But Don Lemon was just reporting - and interviewing everyone by the looks of it.
He really wasn’t. He was very much part of the insurgent mob, and refused to leave the church when asked, instead trying to put a microphone and camera in front of terrified churchgoers who didn’t have a clue what was going on.
He’s been arrested under the same law that has previously charged ‘journalists’ outside abortion clinics, and on Jan 6th.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
"Sex worker"
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
So you are against women having any agency to decide that they use their own body for earning from sex if that is something they would want to do?
And I used “sex worker” because it appears that it’s the more acceptable phrase for prostitute and has fewer of the negative connotations that prostitute does.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
Entirely agree. I confess to enjoying a moment of prurient enjoyment at the revelation - but still from what I know about him, Gates remains one of the world's heroes.
Real humans are complex, shocker.
Everyone does good and bad things. Some more of one than the other.
I don't think we should be excusing bad things on the basis of the good things a person did - I thought we left that idea behind with the Reformation and the revolt against the selling of indulgences.
We want to simplify things and think of some people as evil and some as good - hence what isam was talking about wrt the attempt to beatify victims of police shootings - but really it's people's actions and choices that are good and evil, and those are not inherent, or inevitable, and that makes the evil actions harder to accept, because they didn't have to happen. Whereas, if they're simply the result of an irredeemable evil nature then they're a bit more inevitable and a bit easier to accept as just part of the world.
I thought the main beef with indulgences was that the church was directly benefiting and that they had no more authority to forgive than anyone else.
I don't think we should excuse anything that the perpetrator does not repent from, as in practical terms that just means they are likely to do it again.
But if we cannot weigh ourselves in the balance, then where are we?
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
"Sex worker"
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
It is precisely because I am sharp and worldly" and have seen how men of wealth and in society treat the women whose bodies they buy that I don't buy the Pretty Woman fable men like to fool themselves into believing.
BTW, regardless of me clearly angering you and you disagreeing with me forcefully I am very happy that you are here doing so.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and abused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
All the information that's come about regarding Epstein suggests they were. And of course there were also, almost certainly, numerous abused women who were not "hookers".
This might seem like a frivolous example - one thing that really annoys me about cashless payments is illustrated by ice cream vans: if it's a cashless business, a lot of them won't hand you the ice cream until they've seen the payment go through on their payment device. If they're accepting cash from you, they usually hand you the ice cream first, and you give them the money next. It's really offputting the first time you experience the "not giving you the food yet" version because it's as if they're assuming you might be some sort of swindler who's trying to take it without paying for it.
At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack (sic) on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. https://x.com/AGPamBondi/status/2017238803639845115
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and abused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
All the information that's come about regarding Epstein suggests they were. And of course there were also, almost certainly, numerous abused women who were not "hookers".
(Note Gates has denied the report, FWIW.)
Gates denies the report, but his wife did divorce him shortly afterwards…
Incidentially, Australian politics are quite interesting at the moment.
The long-standing coalition of the Liberal and National parties appears to be over and Liberal leader Sussan Ley is likely to be challenged for the leadership by Angus Taylor following Andrew Hastie's decision not to contest any leadership election.
Meanwhile, Pauline Hanson's One Nation has surged to second place in the polls following the Bondi Beach attack and the travails of the Liberals but this only likely strengthens Albanese's Labour in the two party preferred (2PP) polling.
Yes. It seems like the right are having a Jeremy Corbyn moment after a surprisingly heavy defeat. The 2pp shows that being repeated, or even worse as it stands.
Not all, some have the 2PP down to a 6% gap from 10% but Ley and the Liberals have to keep second to get that. Against One Nation the Labor gap expands
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
"Sex worker"
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
It is precisely because I am sharp and worldly" and have seen how men of wealth and in society treat the women whose bodies they buy that I don't buy the Pretty Woman fable men like to fool themselves into believing.
I studied for a time in a psyche unit that specialised in disturbed youngsters. Nearly all of them had been sexually abused as children, usually by stepfathers, and most had been "on the game" at some point. Sometimes this was to get away from their families and the only way to support themselves, other pimped out by their own stepfathers etc.
I am sure that just as waiters like to flatter tourists that life was better under the Empire, many sex-workers spin their customers a line about being "happy hookers". It might even be true sometimes, but not very often I think.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
Entirely agree. I confess to enjoying a moment of prurient enjoyment at the revelation - but still from what I know about him, Gates remains one of the world's heroes.
Real humans are complex, shocker.
Everyone does good and bad things. Some more of one than the other.
I don't think we should be excusing bad things on the basis of the good things a person did - I thought we left that idea behind with the Reformation and the revolt against the selling of indulgences.
We want to simplify things and think of some people as evil and some as good - hence what isam was talking about wrt the attempt to beatify victims of police shootings - but really it's people's actions and choices that are good and evil, and those are not inherent, or inevitable, and that makes the evil actions harder to accept, because they didn't have to happen. Whereas, if they're simply the result of an irredeemable evil nature then they're a bit more inevitable and a bit easier to accept as just part of the world.
I thought the main beef with indulgences was that the church was directly benefiting and that they had no more authority to forgive than anyone else.
I don't think we should excuse anything that the perpetrator does not repent from, as in practical terms that just means they are likely to do it again.
But if we cannot weigh ourselves in the balance, then where are we?
We have a 21st century version of buying a papal indulgence.
Paying to offset the CO2 emissions from your long haul flight to Mauritius.
At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack (sic) on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. https://x.com/AGPamBondi/status/2017238803639845115
Well: I can see why the protestors faced legal action (albeit it may be protected behaviour). But Don Lemon was just reporting - and interviewing everyone by the looks of it.
As were the other journalists arrested.
There were (as a Bush appointed judge says when refusing the DOJ warrant application) no grounds at all to arrest them. It's highly likely that the DOJ lied to a grand jury (now where have we seen that before ?) to obtain the warrants.
Noam Chomsky and Stephen Pinker say Epstein was an intellectual force with a mind like steel trap and then his e-mails read like the ending of Flowers for Algernon.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
"Sex worker"
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
It is precisely because I am sharp and worldly" and have seen how men of wealth and in society treat the women whose bodies they buy that I don't buy the Pretty Woman fable men like to fool themselves into believing.
I studied for a time in a psyche unit that specialised in disturbed youngsters. Nearly all of them had been sexually abused as children, usually by stepfathers, and most had been "on the game" at some point. Sometimes this was to get away from their families and the only way to support themselves, other pimped out by their own stepfathers etc.
I am sure that just as waiters like to flatter tourists that life was better under the Empire, many sex-workers spin their customers a line about being "happy hookers". It might even be true sometimes, but not very often I think.
Yes, it seems theoretically possible, probably some examples exist, but I wouldn't estimate the percentage of those making a genuine 'free' choice to be significant.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
"Sex worker"
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
It is precisely because I am sharp and worldly" and have seen how men of wealth and in society treat the women whose bodies they buy that I don't buy the Pretty Woman fable men like to fool themselves into believing.
Whilst I would no more approach a prostitute than the Elephant's Foot at Chernobyl and find Pretty Woman a really troubling film, I can't believe all women with men of wealth are being exploited.
When a rich man of 80 marries a young woman we all cringe, but who is doing the exploiting? It is definitely a grey area.
Though I agree that is a very low percentage of what goes on.
At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack (sic) on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. https://x.com/AGPamBondi/status/2017238803639845115
It's part of the ongoing effort to suppress journalism in the US, and it's wildly illegal - or would be if the DOJ were actually enforcing the law.
Problem is what can be done when the top officials don't care about that? There's nobody with power who would act quickly, if they would at all, and in itself that means intimidation tactics are effective if counters only kick in way too late for the individual person.
@JoshEakle I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:
The sheer number of politically diverse and otherwise unrelated figures who abruptly reversed course in 2024 to rally around Trump suggests something more than coincidence.
Everyone should consider the possibility that many of them are implicated in serious wrongdoing and that Trump offered protection or a cover-up in return for their loyalty.
What makes this even more obscene is how many names in the Epstein files overlap with Trump’s cabinet, inner circle, major supporters, etc.
What a stupid conspiracy theory. People rallied round him because he looked like a winner.
Billionaires rallied round Trump because he controls government spending and taxation and uses them as political weapons. Not political affiliation, not Epstein's island, not looking like a winner. Follow, as people say, the money.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
Entirely agree. I confess to enjoying a moment of prurient enjoyment at the revelation - but still from what I know about him, Gates remains one of the world's heroes.
Real humans are complex, shocker.
Everyone does good and bad things. Some more of one than the other.
I don't think we should be excusing bad things on the basis of the good things a person did - I thought we left that idea behind with the Reformation and the revolt against the selling of indulgences.
We want to simplify things and think of some people as evil and some as good - hence what isam was talking about wrt the attempt to beatify victims of police shootings - but really it's people's actions and choices that are good and evil, and those are not inherent, or inevitable, and that makes the evil actions harder to accept, because they didn't have to happen. Whereas, if they're simply the result of an irredeemable evil nature then they're a bit more inevitable and a bit easier to accept as just part of the world.
I thought the main beef with indulgences was that the church was directly benefiting and that they had no more authority to forgive than anyone else.
I don't think we should excuse anything that the perpetrator does not repent from, as in practical terms that just means they are likely to do it again.
But if we cannot weigh ourselves in the balance, then where are we?
I guess we're trying to do as good as we can and to learn from our mistakes and to not shy away from when we have done something wrong.
I think the "weighing in the balance" acts to excuse wrong behaviour, when we really ought to properly recognise it, accept that we all err, do what we can as restitution, and then move on.
If Gates has done wrong he has done wrong, and deserves as much criticism for it as someone else who hasn't donated billions to the cause of eradicating malaria - for which he separately deserves much praise.
Brian Stelter @brianstelter · 1h Via @PaulBlume_FOX9, here's some of what Georgia Fort said after she was released. "Do we have a Constitution? That is the pressing question"
On the rich who have done wrong trying to make good, given how much he's manged to leverage the Presidency to increase his wealth why doesn't Trump just set up a series of Trump prizes to compete with Nobel?
I feel like he would love the idea of people receiving the Trump prize for generations to come, particular the Trump Peace Prize, even if a bunch of people initially might not want to be associated with him.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
"Sex worker"
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
So you are against women having any agency to decide that they use their own body for earning from sex if that is something they would want to do?
And I used “sex worker” because it appears that it’s the more acceptable phrase for prostitute and has fewer of the negative connotations that prostitute does.
But it's essentially demeaning as I think deep down we all know. Eg there won't be many answering 'no' to the question, would you be devastated if your daughter became a prostitute?
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
"Sex worker"
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
So you are against women having any agency to decide that they use their own body for earning from sex if that is something they would want to do?
And I used “sex worker” because it appears that it’s the more acceptable phrase for prostitute and has fewer of the negative connotations that prostitute does.
I'll throw a little fuel on the fire here by pointing out that many trans women are forced into sex work precisely because of the attitudes that Cyclefree has displayed on this site, attitudes that keep them out of 'normal' society and normal jobs because of bigotry and prejudice - see the poor trans woman working in M&S who was the target of a campaign of abuse and vitriol last year for simply asking a woman and her daughter if they were required assistance. How many employers would take on a trans person now knowing that at any moment they could be the target of a hysterical campaign about "perverts" working in shops?
I will add that I agree with you that while some women are indeed trafficked and exploited, women have agency, and I have known (as friends through my social circle, not as a client!) some very high class call girls who earned more in their 20s and 30s than most people will in a lifetime and are now very happily retired. It is a woman's right to choose - and if that means choosing that life, it isn't for us to condemn them.
Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney · 1h JUST IN: Judge Kollar-Kotelly permanently enjoins President Trump's executive order claiming to impose a citizenship requirement to vote or register to vote.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
I know several people who knew Bill Gates well and he seems unpleasant all round. But he had the self awareness, I think, lacking in the other techbros of using his organisation skills and accumulated wealth for projects that actually benefit mankind. It was Melinda who gave him that direction and that's why he married her - he wouldn't have done it on his own.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
"Sex worker"
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
So you are against women having any agency to decide that they use their own body for earning from sex if that is something they would want to do?
And I used “sex worker” because it appears that it’s the more acceptable phrase for prostitute and has fewer of the negative connotations that prostitute does.
But it's essentially demeaning as I think deep down we all know. Eg there won't be many answering 'no' to the question, would you be devastated if your daughter became a prostitute?
If the other options were Conservative and Sunderland supporter, then a tough call.
Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney · 1h JUST IN: Judge Kollar-Kotelly permanently enjoins President Trump's executive order claiming to impose a citizenship requirement to vote or register to vote.
I know it will be because there will be a lot of complicated motions as part of this, but I still get a chuckle at the start having this brief sentence.
the Court shall GRANT IN PART, DENY IN PART, and DEFER IN PART each of the parties’ motions and shall DISMISS certain claims in part
On the rich who have done wrong trying to make good, given how much he's manged to leverage the Presidency to increase his wealth why doesn't Trump just set up a series of Trump prizes to compete with Nobel?
I feel like he would love the idea of people receiving the Trump prize for generations to come, particular the Trump Peace Prize, even if a bunch of people initially might not want to be associated with him.
I think Trump would love to set up a series of prizes, but he would absolutely insist on finding a bunch of chumps to pay for it rather than using any of his own money.
On the rich who have done wrong trying to make good, given how much he's manged to leverage the Presidency to increase his wealth why doesn't Trump just set up a series of Trump prizes to compete with Nobel?
I feel like he would love the idea of people receiving the Trump prize for generations to come, particular the Trump Peace Prize, even if a bunch of people initially might not want to be associated with him.
I think Trump would love to set up a series of prizes, but he would absolutely insist on finding a bunch of chumps to pay for it rather than using any of his own money.
The prize will be a luxury apartment in Trump Gaza.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
I know several people who knew Bill Gates well and he seems unpleasant all round. But he had the self awareness, I think, lacking in the other techbros of using his organisation skills and accumulated wealth for projects that actually benefit mankind. It was Melinda who gave him that direction and that's why he married her - he wouldn't have done it on his own.
It might be in part a coping mechanism from us poors, but it doesn't seem very likely that people who can methodically and ruthlessly establish massive business empires will also be overflowing with compassion. Not to say they'll all be sociopaths, but the skills required to rise and dominate may not translate super well to other spheres. So it seems quite plausible that choosing and working with the right people to help them to do so in charitable matters.
At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack (sic) on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. https://x.com/AGPamBondi/status/2017238803639845115
It's part of the ongoing effort to suppress journalism in the US, and it's wildly illegal - or would be if the DOJ were actually enforcing the law.
Problem is what can be done when the top officials don't care about that? There's nobody with power who would act quickly, if they would at all, and in itself that means intimidation tactics are effective if counters only kick in way too late for the individual person.
The only real remedy lies with Congress - and it's looking increasingly likely that there's a scheme bring developed to subvert the midterm elections.
On the rich who have done wrong trying to make good, given how much he's manged to leverage the Presidency to increase his wealth why doesn't Trump just set up a series of Trump prizes to compete with Nobel?
I feel like he would love the idea of people receiving the Trump prize for generations to come, particular the Trump Peace Prize, even if a bunch of people initially might not want to be associated with him.
I think Trump would love to set up a series of prizes, but he would absolutely insist on finding a bunch of chumps to pay for it rather than using any of his own money.
I read something recently that said having bulldozed the East Wing, the ballroom that lots of donors have funded might not actually get built.
On the rich who have done wrong trying to make good, given how much he's manged to leverage the Presidency to increase his wealth why doesn't Trump just set up a series of Trump prizes to compete with Nobel?
I feel like he would love the idea of people receiving the Trump prize for generations to come, particular the Trump Peace Prize, even if a bunch of people initially might not want to be associated with him.
I think Trump would love to set up a series of prizes, but he would absolutely insist on finding a bunch of chumps to pay for it rather than using any of his own money.
No one cheaper than a billionaire for spending their own money after all.
Plus he has valued his name as his brand in the billions (in fairness it will be worth a lot).
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
"Sex worker"
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
So you are against women having any agency to decide that they use their own body for earning from sex if that is something they would want to do?
And I used “sex worker” because it appears that it’s the more acceptable phrase for prostitute and has fewer of the negative connotations that prostitute does.
I'll throw a little fuel on the fire here by pointing out that many trans women are forced into sex work precisely because of the attitudes that Cyclefree has displayed on this site, attitudes that keep them out of 'normal' society and normal jobs because of bigotry and prejudice - see the poor trans woman working in M&S who was the target of a campaign of abuse and vitriol last year for simply asking a woman and her daughter if they were required assistance. How many employers would take on a trans person now knowing that at any moment they could be the target of a hysterical campaign about "perverts" working in shops?
I will add that I agree with you that while some women are indeed trafficked and exploited, women have agency, and I have known (as friends through my social circle, not as a client!) some very high class call girls who earned more in their 20s and 30s than most people will in a lifetime and are now very happily retired. It is a woman's right to choose - and if that means choosing that life, it isn't for us to condemn them.
I don't think many would codemn the women for their choices, but the men who make the world in such a way that women would make those choices.
If we didn't live in a patriarchy in which men routinely held power over women, and monopolise wealth and income, we'd see drastically fewer women making such a choice.
So it's hardly a free choice. At the very least there's economic coercion, if not psychological or physical coercion.
Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney · 1h JUST IN: Judge Kollar-Kotelly permanently enjoins President Trump's executive order claiming to impose a citizenship requirement to vote or register to vote.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
"Sex worker"
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
So you are against women having any agency to decide that they use their own body for earning from sex if that is something they would want to do?
And I used “sex worker” because it appears that it’s the more acceptable phrase for prostitute and has fewer of the negative connotations that prostitute does.
I'll throw a little fuel on the fire here by pointing out that many trans women are forced into sex work precisely because of the attitudes that Cyclefree has displayed on this site, attitudes that keep them out of 'normal' society and normal jobs because of bigotry and prejudice - see the poor trans woman working in M&S who was the target of a campaign of abuse and vitriol last year for simply asking a woman and her daughter if they were required assistance. How many employers would take on a trans person now knowing that at any moment they could be the target of a hysterical campaign about "perverts" working in shops?
I will add that I agree with you that while some women are indeed trafficked and exploited, women have agency, and I have known (as friends through my social circle, not as a client!) some very high class call girls who earned more in their 20s and 30s than most people will in a lifetime and are now very happily retired. It is a woman's right to choose - and if that means choosing that life, it isn't for us to condemn them.
I don't think many would codemn the women for their choices, but the men who make the world in such a way that women would make those choices.
If we didn't live in a patriarchy in which men routinely held power over women, and monopolise wealth and income, we'd see drastically fewer women making such a choice.
So it's hardly a free choice. At the very least there's economic coercion, if not psychological or physical coercion.
That’s also true for, say, people working as office cleaners.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
"Sex worker"
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
So you are against women having any agency to decide that they use their own body for earning from sex if that is something they would want to do?
And I used “sex worker” because it appears that it’s the more acceptable phrase for prostitute and has fewer of the negative connotations that prostitute does.
I'll throw a little fuel on the fire here by pointing out that many trans women are forced into sex work precisely because of the attitudes that Cyclefree has displayed on this site, attitudes that keep them out of 'normal' society and normal jobs because of bigotry and prejudice - see the poor trans woman working in M&S who was the target of a campaign of abuse and vitriol last year for simply asking a woman and her daughter if they were required assistance. How many employers would take on a trans person now knowing that at any moment they could be the target of a hysterical campaign about "perverts" working in shops?
I will add that I agree with you that while some women are indeed trafficked and exploited, women have agency, and I have known (as friends through my social circle, not as a client!) some very high class call girls who earned more in their 20s and 30s than most people will in a lifetime and are now very happily retired. It is a woman's right to choose - and if that means choosing that life, it isn't for us to condemn them.
I don't think many would codemn the women for their choices, but the men who make the world in such a way that women would make those choices.
If we didn't live in a patriarchy in which men routinely held power over women, and monopolise wealth and income, we'd see drastically fewer women making such a choice.
So it's hardly a free choice. At the very least there's economic coercion, if not psychological or physical coercion.
I dunno about that. Not trying to speak for women - not even the professionals I knew back in the day, but if the choice was making £200 an hour as an escort or £8.50 an hour in McDonalds or whatever, my guess is that most of them would freely make the choice to do the sex work.
As far as economic coercion goes - is it economic coercion that 99% of the population has to get up to go to a job they probably hate to put a roof over their head and pay the bills? How many lottery winners keep working etc... people make choices about how to exist and how to sell their labour in a capitalist society. If you want to say that capitalism is the problem I suspect I might agree with you there...
It's a hard truth that some people choose sex work because they're good at it and it pays an order of magnitude better than anything else they know how to do. I don't see it as my place to condemn a woman for making that choice, or police what she chooses to do with her body.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
I know several people who knew Bill Gates well and he seems unpleasant all round. But he had the self awareness, I think, lacking in the other techbros of using his organisation skills and accumulated wealth for projects that actually benefit mankind. It was Melinda who gave him that direction and that's why he married her - he wouldn't have done it on his own.
It might be in part a coping mechanism from us poors, but it doesn't seem very likely that people who can methodically and ruthlessly establish massive business empires will also be overflowing with compassion. Not to say they'll all be sociopaths, but the skills required to rise and dominate may not translate super well to other spheres. So it seems quite plausible that choosing and working with the right people to help them to do so in charitable matters.
That's my understanding. It was a partnership arrangement. Melinda obviously got unimaginable wealth out of the relationship but using the riches for the greater good was part of the deal. Bill was fine with it because he was the richest man in the world at that point so what else was he going to use the money for? So Melinda provided the why and the what of the project and Bill provided the how.
The FT is reporting that Airbus has given up on producing a fighter as part of the franco-german FCAS project.
Not a great result for Europe when it is attempting to re-arm.
Possibly good news for UK. GCAP (formerly Tempest) is a UK/Italy/Japan co-production that does not involve the French or the Americans and therefore has a good chance of not being derailed. It may never actually finish, but currently it's in the lead.
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
"Sex worker"
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
So you are against women having any agency to decide that they use their own body for earning from sex if that is something they would want to do?
And I used “sex worker” because it appears that it’s the more acceptable phrase for prostitute and has fewer of the negative connotations that prostitute does.
I'll throw a little fuel on the fire here by pointing out that many trans women are forced into sex work precisely because of the attitudes that Cyclefree has displayed on this site, attitudes that keep them out of 'normal' society and normal jobs because of bigotry and prejudice - see the poor trans woman working in M&S who was the target of a campaign of abuse and vitriol last year for simply asking a woman and her daughter if they were required assistance. How many employers would take on a trans person now knowing that at any moment they could be the target of a hysterical campaign about "perverts" working in shops?
I will add that I agree with you that while some women are indeed trafficked and exploited, women have agency, and I have known (as friends through my social circle, not as a client!) some very high class call girls who earned more in their 20s and 30s than most people will in a lifetime and are now very happily retired. It is a woman's right to choose - and if that means choosing that life, it isn't for us to condemn them.
I don't think many would codemn the women for their choices, but the men who make the world in such a way that women would make those choices.
If we didn't live in a patriarchy in which men routinely held power over women, and monopolise wealth and income, we'd see drastically fewer women making such a choice.
So it's hardly a free choice. At the very least there's economic coercion, if not psychological or physical coercion.
That’s also true for, say, people working as office cleaners.
Yes. I think in a previous discussion along these lines I also said that I wouldn't want my daughter to become a professional toilet cleaner, just as I wouldn't want her to sell her body.
Number of net gains (or losses -ve) for the Dems in the House? 22 Number of net gains (or losses -ve) for the Dems in the Senate? 4 Number of MSPs won by the SNP at the Holyrood election? 57 Number of AMs won by Plaid Cymru at the Senedd election? 45 UK Party recording the largest poll lead during 2026 and by what percentage? (British Polling Council registered pollsters only). Reform UK 15% Labour’s Projected National Share of the vote based on the 2026 local elections according to the BBC? 17% Number of Reform MPs on the 31st December 2026? 15 The name of the UK Prime Minister on 31st December 2026? Ed Miliband Will Andy Burnham will be an MP on 31st December 2026? NO UK borrowing in the financial year to November 2026 (£132.3bn to November 2025). £145 billion UK GDP growth in the 12 months to October 2026 (1.1% to October 2025). 1.3% Winners of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup. Scotland
I have selected a comedy answer for one of my guesses, but I will leave you all to figure out which one
Number of net gains (or losses -ve) for the Dems in the House? 22 Number of net gains (or losses -ve) for the Dems in the Senate? 4 Number of MSPs won by the SNP at the Holyrood election? 57 Number of AMs won by Plaid Cymru at the Senedd election? 45 UK Party recording the largest poll lead during 2026 and by what percentage? (British Polling Council registered pollsters only). Reform UK 15% Labour’s Projected National Share of the vote based on the 2026 local elections according to the BBC? 17% Number of Reform MPs on the 31st December 2026? 15 The name of the UK Prime Minister on 31st December 2026? Ed Miliband Will Andy Burnham will be an MP on 31st December 2026? NO UK borrowing in the financial year to November 2026 (£132.3bn to November 2025). £145 billion UK GDP growth in the 12 months to October 2026 (1.1% to October 2025). 1.3% Winners of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup. Scotland
I have selected a comedy answer for one of my guesses, but I will leave you all to figure out which one
I hope if Starmer is not PM on 31/12/26 that @TheScreamingEagles and the other great and good of the PB competition will use their discretionary powers to reward people who got it right with handsome bonus points. Could be on a sliding scale: Other Labour leader - 20 bonus points; Nigel Farage 50 points; Ed Davey 1000 points.
Britain is on the cusp of an economic boom – David Owen, from Saltmarsh Economics, says the media narrative of bankrupt Britain has been a travesty.
“People just wrote us off. Now the stars are aligned and I think the UK can easily surprise on the upside, with growth of 2-3pc down the line,” he said.
IIRC, BPC rules[1] say that a poll must contain a statement saying how big the margin of error is. However the rules are different for polls for individual constituencies and those rules say they must provide "...an indication (for parties with a realistic chance of winning) of either (i) each party’s estimated probability of winning each seat, or (ii) the estimated vote shares for each party in each constituency...", which they have done.
However this is a poor show. I think they don't know what the MOE is for their G&D poll.
Number of net gains (or losses -ve) for the Dems in the House? 22 Number of net gains (or losses -ve) for the Dems in the Senate? 4 Number of MSPs won by the SNP at the Holyrood election? 57 Number of AMs won by Plaid Cymru at the Senedd election? 45 UK Party recording the largest poll lead during 2026 and by what percentage? (British Polling Council registered pollsters only). Reform UK 15% Labour’s Projected National Share of the vote based on the 2026 local elections according to the BBC? 17% Number of Reform MPs on the 31st December 2026? 15 The name of the UK Prime Minister on 31st December 2026? Ed Miliband Will Andy Burnham will be an MP on 31st December 2026? NO UK borrowing in the financial year to November 2026 (£132.3bn to November 2025). £145 billion UK GDP growth in the 12 months to October 2026 (1.1% to October 2025). 1.3% Winners of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup. Scotland
I have selected a comedy answer for one of my guesses, but I will leave you all to figure out which one
"...The name of the UK Prime Minister on 31st December 2026? Ed Miliband..." - unlikely
"...Winners of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup. Scotland..." - an obviously sensible and likely prediction based on smart analysis and pleasedonthurtmemalcolmg
Am I alone in my weird moral universe where I think that when Gates is weighed and measured that his shenanigans with Russian pros is far outweighed by his efforts to rid Africa of Malaria?
I’m not someone who gets remotely bothered by famous people’s sexual kicks but I do appreciate that they can have other sides that use their wealth and influence for something that is a huge benefit to the world. I don’t think anyone who will be alive in the future because Gates had loads of money and had dodgy behaviour will begrudge him getting syph or crabs.
Maybe my moral compass is wrong (in fact I know it’s wonky) but I’m ok with this as long as the hookers were of age and not trafficked.
How naive to think that hookers are not trafficked, raped, coerced and beaten up and bused in multiple ways by their pimps and traffickers, as well as their clients.
Ok, disclaimer I have never used a sex worker, I have known and know several for weird reasons. A few I have tried to help or convince to get out and others are absolutely in control of how they use their bodies. They do not have pimps and -regardless of me not understanding it - claim to enjoy what their choice of what to do with their body gives them the lifestyle they want.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
"Sex worker"
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
So you are against women having any agency to decide that they use their own body for earning from sex if that is something they would want to do?
And I used “sex worker” because it appears that it’s the more acceptable phrase for prostitute and has fewer of the negative connotations that prostitute does.
I'll throw a little fuel on the fire here by pointing out that many trans women are forced into sex work precisely because of the attitudes that Cyclefree has displayed on this site, attitudes that keep them out of 'normal' society and normal jobs because of bigotry and prejudice - see the poor trans woman working in M&S who was the target of a campaign of abuse and vitriol last year for simply asking a woman and her daughter if they were required assistance. How many employers would take on a trans person now knowing that at any moment they could be the target of a hysterical campaign about "perverts" working in shops?
I will add that I agree with you that while some women are indeed trafficked and exploited, women have agency, and I have known (as friends through my social circle, not as a client!) some very high class call girls who earned more in their 20s and 30s than most people will in a lifetime and are now very happily retired. It is a woman's right to choose - and if that means choosing that life, it isn't for us to condemn them.
I don't think many would codemn the women for their choices, but the men who make the world in such a way that women would make those choices.
If we didn't live in a patriarchy in which men routinely held power over women, and monopolise wealth and income, we'd see drastically fewer women making such a choice.
So it's hardly a free choice. At the very least there's economic coercion, if not psychological or physical coercion.
I dunno about that. Not trying to speak for women - not even the professionals I knew back in the day, but if the choice was making £200 an hour as an escort or £8.50 an hour in McDonalds or whatever, my guess is that most of them would freely make the choice to do the sex work.
As far as economic coercion goes - is it economic coercion that 99% of the population has to get up to go to a job they probably hate to put a roof over their head and pay the bills? How many lottery winners keep working etc... people make choices about how to exist and how to sell their labour in a capitalist society. If you want to say that capitalism is the problem I suspect I might agree with you there...
It's a hard truth that some people choose sex work because they're good at it and it pays an order of magnitude better than anything else they know how to do. I don't see it as my place to condemn a woman for making that choice, or police what she chooses to do with her body.
I have to wonder whether cyclefree was prosecuting QC in a trial I was a juror for a few years ago, 2 Brazilian sex workers robbed by a couple of lads from hackney in an air BnB by Harvey Nichols. We were asked to consider how horrible their life was, but given they were jet setting about the globe and had sex worked in Dubai, I think it was a life style choice they'd made despite the downsides. Though I expect the vast majority of sex workers haven't had the same freedom of choice. It occurs to me that this would be a brilliant topic for a discussion between Emma Barnett and Leon.
Gold Standard. The occupy the position Angus Reid once held.
I am genuinely surpirsed that, with all the Trump stuff recently as well as the connections with Putin, the Reform vote is holding up so well. For all that we are all interested in Trump and he is a bad joke figure to much of the British public, I wonder if there is a widespread decoupling between foreign and domestic issues in the eyes of the electorate that prevents Reform from suffering from their idiotic foreign policy positions.
I'm surprised you're surprised. Most voters are not interested at all in foreign affairs, much as one wishes they were.
And the failure to draw that connection could the biggest mistake.
Becauss Reform's leader, and many of their representatives, idolise a foreign leader who is seeking authoritarian rule, they are quite simply the biggest threat British parliamentary democracy has faced in the modern era.
I think that Reform would be dire, in government. But, nothing suggests to me that they represent an existential threat to democracy.
Why not?
Wrong question. The burden of proof lies with those making the claim, not those denying it. Now personally I think Reform would be terrible for the country both practially and spiritually. But I am not convinced that Farage is going to go down the Trump route. Indeed one of his proposed reforms is the introduction of PR. Something which I pesonaly strongly oppopose but which many on here, particularly on the Left, claim is far more democratic than the current system.
The reason why cash is such a good system is that it's decentralised. Digital money is a centralised system which can go totally wrong at any time due to bad actors.
Comments
I don't think we should be excusing bad things on the basis of the good things a person did - I thought we left that idea behind with the Reformation and the revolt against the selling of indulgences.
We want to simplify things and think of some people as evil and some as good - hence what isam was talking about wrt the attempt to beatify victims of police shootings - but really it's people's actions and choices that are good and evil, and those are not inherent, or inevitable, and that makes the evil actions harder to accept, because they didn't have to happen. Whereas, if they're simply the result of an irredeemable evil nature then they're a bit more inevitable and a bit easier to accept as just part of the world.
(In fairness Richard Henriques, presiding over a subsequent case about it, later commented that he congratulated the jury on their wisdom in specifically exonerating Cressida Dick from all blame).
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:
The sheer number of politically diverse and otherwise unrelated figures who abruptly reversed course in 2024 to rally around Trump suggests something more than coincidence.
Everyone should consider the possibility that many of them are implicated in serious wrongdoing and that Trump offered protection or a cover-up in return for their loyalty.
What makes this even more obscene is how many names in the Epstein files overlap with Trump’s cabinet, inner circle, major supporters, etc.
https://x.com/JoshEakle/status/2017313005613301969?s=20
This from the Party that sues for breaches of electoral law at the slightest opportunity.
If that isn't a disregard for law and democratic norms then it's a pretty high bar.
You of all people should appreciate that there are women who are forced to sell themselves and there are women who use their bodies as they wish and it is certainly not up to anyone, yet alone a man, to tell them what they should or should not do.
Many, if not most sex workers are coerced but there is a substantial number of women who, especially in rarified environments of wealth and society, who mix and choose to make money from something that they would do anyway, you are far too sharp and worldly to deny otherwise.
To argue that all women are coerced would be to deny all women agency.
Jeez they still think everyone’s begging for more ! Most think it’s a turd that needs to be flushed away .
Gold is uniquely a bit different. There's about 36,000 tons of gold held by central banks - roughly ten years of global gold production. And then more held by private investors - my latest I have a few grams myself in a vault in London. It's a market much more distorted than that for other commodities.
But much less than for cryptocurrency.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfUx9v85VUg
Prostitution is not work. It is abuse of women by men.
It is precisely because I am sharp and worldly" and have seen how men of wealth and in society treat the women whose bodies they buy that I don't buy the Pretty Woman fable men like to fool themselves into believing.
Many Reform FB pages insisted otherwise.
I suppose that's "banter" to them.
He’s been arrested under the same law that has previously charged ‘journalists’ outside abortion clinics, and on Jan 6th.
And I used “sex worker” because it appears that it’s the more acceptable phrase for prostitute and has fewer of the negative connotations that prostitute does.
Wild that convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell is getting better treatment in custody than a 5-year-old immigrant.
I don't think we should excuse anything that the perpetrator does not repent from, as in practical terms that just means they are likely to do it again.
But if we cannot weigh ourselves in the balance, then where are we?
And of course there were also, almost certainly, numerous abused women who were not "hookers".
(Note Gates has denied the report, FWIW.)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/beM3mTk54XQ
I am sure that just as waiters like to flatter tourists that life was better under the Empire, many sex-workers spin their customers a line about being "happy hookers". It might even be true sometimes, but not very often I think.
Paying to offset the CO2 emissions from your long haul flight to Mauritius.
There were (as a Bush appointed judge says when refusing the DOJ warrant application) no grounds at all to arrest them.
It's highly likely that the DOJ lied to a grand jury (now where have we seen that before ?) to obtain the warrants.
Noam Chomsky and Stephen Pinker say Epstein was an intellectual force with a mind like steel trap and then his e-mails read like the ending of Flowers for Algernon.
When a rich man of 80 marries a young woman we all cringe, but who is doing the exploiting? It is definitely a grey area.
Though I agree that is a very low percentage of what goes on.
I think the "weighing in the balance" acts to excuse wrong behaviour, when we really ought to properly recognise it, accept that we all err, do what we can as restitution, and then move on.
If Gates has done wrong he has done wrong, and deserves as much criticism for it as someone else who hasn't donated billions to the cause of eradicating malaria - for which he separately deserves much praise.
@brianstelter
·
1h
Via
@PaulBlume_FOX9, here's some of what Georgia Fort said after she was released. "Do we have a Constitution? That is the pressing question"
https://x.com/brianstelter/status/2017349280764211419
https://x.com/FindoutnowUK/status/2017266819317293114?s=20
I feel like he would love the idea of people receiving the Trump prize for generations to come, particular the Trump Peace Prize, even if a bunch of people initially might not want to be associated with him.
I will add that I agree with you that while some women are indeed trafficked and exploited, women have agency, and I have known (as friends through my social circle, not as a client!) some very high class call girls who earned more in their 20s and 30s than most people will in a lifetime and are now very happily retired. It is a woman's right to choose - and if that means choosing that life, it isn't for us to condemn them.
Kyle Cheney
@kyledcheney
·
1h
JUST IN: Judge Kollar-Kotelly permanently enjoins President Trump's executive order claiming to impose a citizenship requirement to vote or register to vote.
Her 110 page ruling. https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2025cv0946-236
https://x.com/kyledcheney/status/2017346662381789275
the Court shall GRANT IN PART, DENY IN PART, and DEFER IN PART each of the parties’ motions and shall DISMISS certain claims in part
Trump's legacy, a gaping hole
Plus he has valued his name as his brand in the billions (in fairness it will be worth a lot).
If we didn't live in a patriarchy in which men routinely held power over women, and monopolise wealth and income, we'd see drastically fewer women making such a choice.
So it's hardly a free choice. At the very least there's economic coercion, if not psychological or physical coercion.
You do have to be a citizen.
This was about Trump trying to impose additional burdens of proof of status in order to vote, was it not ?
Documents released today by Trump's DOJ say otherwise.
https://x.com/SarahLongwell25/status/2017331832610578707
As far as economic coercion goes - is it economic coercion that 99% of the population has to get up to go to a job they probably hate to put a roof over their head and pay the bills? How many lottery winners keep working etc... people make choices about how to exist and how to sell their labour in a capitalist society. If you want to say that capitalism is the problem I suspect I might agree with you there...
It's a hard truth that some people choose sex work because they're good at it and it pays an order of magnitude better than anything else they know how to do. I don't see it as my place to condemn a woman for making that choice, or police what she chooses to do with her body.
Not a great result for Europe when it is attempting to re-arm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dFyQzcvdcM
#competition
Number of net gains (or losses -ve) for the Dems in the House? 22
Number of net gains (or losses -ve) for the Dems in the Senate? 4
Number of MSPs won by the SNP at the Holyrood election? 57
Number of AMs won by Plaid Cymru at the Senedd election? 45
UK Party recording the largest poll lead during 2026 and by what percentage? (British Polling Council registered pollsters only). Reform UK 15%
Labour’s Projected National Share of the vote based on the 2026 local elections according to the BBC? 17%
Number of Reform MPs on the 31st December 2026? 15
The name of the UK Prime Minister on 31st December 2026? Ed Miliband
Will Andy Burnham will be an MP on 31st December 2026? NO
UK borrowing in the financial year to November 2026 (£132.3bn to November 2025). £145 billion
UK GDP growth in the 12 months to October 2026 (1.1% to October 2025). 1.3%
Winners of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup. Scotland
I have selected a comedy answer for one of my guesses, but I will leave you all to figure out which one
https://x.com/fennelljw/status/2017289834402885922
Britain is on the cusp of an economic boom – David Owen, from Saltmarsh Economics, says the media narrative of bankrupt Britain has been a travesty.
“People just wrote us off. Now the stars are aligned and I think the UK can easily surprise on the upside, with growth of 2-3pc down the line,” he said.
IIRC, BPC rules[1] say that a poll must contain a statement saying how big the margin of error is. However the rules are different for polls for individual constituencies and those rules say they must provide "...an indication (for parties with a realistic chance of winning) of either (i) each party’s estimated probability of winning each seat, or (ii) the estimated vote shares for each party in each constituency...", which they have done.
However this is a poor show. I think they don't know what the MOE is for their G&D poll.
Further reading
[1] https://www.britishpollingcouncil.org/objects-and-rules/
[2] https://www.britishpollingcouncil.org/faqs-about-polling/
[3] https://www.mrs.org.uk/mis/MRS Summary of Inquiry Report FOR CIRCULATION FINAL.docx
Though I expect the vast majority of sex workers haven't had the same freedom of choice. It occurs to me that this would be a brilliant topic for a discussion between Emma Barnett and Leon.