On topic, perhaps the most interesting reveal in the Epstein files is the expose of how the rich get richer by political lobbying and patronage, all lubricated by congenial socialising.
These people are not smarter than anyone else, just more venal.
They may be smarter than most - until they fall victim to their own hubris. They just apply their intelligence to bad ends.
Their behaviour seems quite familiar to anyone with knowledge of the history of Tudor or Romanov courts.
Regrettably, he's wrong. My pleasant market town is presently suffering a large influx of Londoners who have finally worked out that it's way nicer a couple of hundred miles further north. This is doing lots of bad things, including pushing up house prices, and encouraging the building of loads of nasty Barratt wonders on the edge of town (the London types think they are amazing, a four bed house for the price of a ropey London flat! I don't know of a single local living in one).
We should probably build a wall between Gloucester and Kings Lynn, and make the Southerners pay for it (feels a bit harsh to keep the Brummies out by drawing a line much further north).
We've got that too. And the next Local Plan is slated to increase it.
There also seems to be a pitch for a lot (35%-40%) affordable which is pre-sold to Social Landlords who are housing the London overspill of those in temporary accommodation. Saves London Councils a lot by sending their mixed milieu off to the coast.
Kings Cross was gentrified by expelling most of the existing population - poor people who rented.
The process by which it was done was quite brutal and grotesque.
Of note is that it was quite a black area - the current population is diverse but noticeably… paler.
Under T. Blair, as well.
Makes one wonder what the effect of subcontracting poor-people-storage out of London will be.
The nice parts of the country shouldn’t be stuck with London’s waste.
Is he on the same promotion deal as farage now? The bubble gets blown even bigger, this is wind win for them, when it eventually bursts the people silly enough to be ruined by it will rage at anything and everything but the people who encouraged them into buying gold.
On topic, perhaps the most interesting reveal in the Epstein files is the expose of how the rich get richer by political lobbying and patronage, all lubricated by congenial socialising.
These people are not smarter than anyone else, just more venal.
They may be smarter than most - until they fall victim to their own hubris. They just apply their intelligence to bad ends.
Their behaviour seems quite familiar to anyone with knowledge of the history of Tudor or Romanov courts.
It's what you know until it's who you know, and then it's just who you know.
The hard bit is making a name for yourself in the first place.
Is he on the same promotion deal as farage now? The bubble gets blown even bigger, this is wind win for them, when it eventually bursts the people silly enough to be ruined by it will rage at anything and everything but the people who encouraged them into buying gold.
If you were wondering whether FBI agents are willing to break the law if told to by the president, the answer is is the same as it was for whether soldiers and generals would follow illegal orders: on the whole, with exceptions, yes. These are practice runs. Like the firebombing of the boats in the Caribbean, they are meant to habituate everyone — the officers, the media, Congress, the public — to the idea that the president can not only break the law himself (we know that, thanks to the Supreme Court), but order others to do so, and no consequences will follow. Nobody quits, nobody gets investigated, nobody goes to jail. Not even if they kill someone. https://x.com/acoyne/status/2018405974764060760
The Supreme Court, despite having some smart people on it, really did not think very far ahead when taking the most broad interpretation possible of presidential immunity, combined with the untested and probably similarly broad ability to pardon people.
You might say actually they did think far ahead and like the authoritarian approach, which is certainly true of a few of them, but as of now it is not impossible for Trump's minions to lose, and there's no way Alito and Thomas for one would accept a Democrat president having that kind of latitude.
As we're seeing with the absurd tax return case, Trump can sue his own government, order it to settle, and pocket the cash. The only remedy is impeachment, since the SC has declared him immune to any charges of criminality while acting as president.
They have legalised massive corruption - Trump can for example leak secrets in exchange for money and face no penalty.
On topic, perhaps the most interesting reveal in the Epstein files is the expose of how the rich get richer by political lobbying and patronage, all lubricated by congenial socialising.
These people are not smarter than anyone else, just more venal.
Looks like I anticipated @Cyclefree header on new thread.
I was at Hendon County Grammar School in the year below Peter Mandelson. I have never liked him and am not at all surprised by the revelations. And, for the record, the story often repeated by Mandelson's friend Steve Howell that they caused the "early retirement" of the headmaster, E W Maynard Potts, is a complete fabrication. The fact they appear to continue to believe this shows just how self-absorbed they were and unaware of what was going on around them.
The London Borough of Barnet had decided to convert schools to comprehensives by merging each grammar school with a secondary modern. For Hendon County, the obvious thing would have been to merge the school with St Mary's. It was within walking distance of Hendon County, had a similar ethos and there were already strong links between the schools. However, the borough decided instead to merge Hendon County with St David's - a boys-only school that was regarded as by far the worst school in the area. It was further away than St Marys, the other side of the A41, making movement between the schools difficult. Potts campaigned against this and was even interviewed about it on the BBC's main current affairs programme - a proper, sit down interview in the studio. The campaign failed. It was this that prompted Potts to go when he did, leaving at Easter to make life difficult for the borough (which wasn't actually early retirement at all - he had reached retirement age). Those of us who had parents involved in the campaign knew Potts' plans long before the events that Howell claims triggered his retirement.
On his web page, Howell says that a temporary head was brought in from outside the school. This is wrong. Jack Driver, Potts' deputy, took over as temporary head. Sadly, he did not get the permanent job. A new permanent head was brought in from outside the school who proved to be a complete disaster. Mandelson and his friends had already gone by this time, and I was in the Upper Sixth so it didn't affect me too much, but my sister's education suffered as a result of changes made by the new head.
Elon Musk plans to merge SpaceX with xAI in a deal that encompasses the billionaire’s increasingly costly ambitions to dominate artificial intelligence and space exploration
Merging a successful company with vapid buzz words.
Why?
Apparently The Next Big Thing is Data Servers In Space. I'm not making that up. Data Servers. In Space. Big ones.
So by merging xAI and SpaceX he has the ability to launch Big Data Servers into Space so they can run the AI moar kwik or something. I dunno. I don't operate at Stupid Rich level. He has hundreds of billions to play with and nobody to tell him no. So it's Big Data Servers In Spaaace time.
I believe the idea is then they can be powered in space too and not need to use earthbound power.
Whether its truly cheaper to power data servers in space than on the ground is another question.
Cooling will be the main advantage.
The main advantage is it allows Musk to flip his stake in xAI at the peak of the bubble into shares in a real business which will shortly go public
Comments
Their behaviour seems quite familiar to anyone with knowledge of the history of Tudor or Romanov courts.
The bubble gets blown even bigger, this is wind win for them, when it eventually bursts the people silly enough to be ruined by it will rage at anything and everything but the people who encouraged them into buying gold.
The hard bit is making a name for yourself in the first place.
NEW THREAD
The only remedy is impeachment, since the SC has declared him immune to any charges of criminality while acting as president.
They have legalised massive corruption - Trump can for example leak secrets in exchange for money and face no penalty.
The London Borough of Barnet had decided to convert schools to comprehensives by merging each grammar school with a secondary modern. For Hendon County, the obvious thing would have been to merge the school with St Mary's. It was within walking distance of Hendon County, had a similar ethos and there were already strong links between the schools. However, the borough decided instead to merge Hendon County with St David's - a boys-only school that was regarded as by far the worst school in the area. It was further away than St Marys, the other side of the A41, making movement between the schools difficult. Potts campaigned against this and was even interviewed about it on the BBC's main current affairs programme - a proper, sit down interview in the studio. The campaign failed. It was this that prompted Potts to go when he did, leaving at Easter to make life difficult for the borough (which wasn't actually early retirement at all - he had reached retirement age). Those of us who had parents involved in the campaign knew Potts' plans long before the events that Howell claims triggered his retirement.
On his web page, Howell says that a temporary head was brought in from outside the school. This is wrong. Jack Driver, Potts' deputy, took over as temporary head. Sadly, he did not get the permanent job. A new permanent head was brought in from outside the school who proved to be a complete disaster. Mandelson and his friends had already gone by this time, and I was in the Upper Sixth so it didn't affect me too much, but my sister's education suffered as a result of changes made by the new head.