Physicists on X are claiming they have evidence the universe is a Simulation, and that very soon it will be turned off, annihliating all "existence" as we know it
So at least I can stop worrying about Making Tax Digital
Physicists on X are claiming they have evidence the universe is a Simulation, and that very soon it will be turned off, annihliating all "existence" as we know it
So at least I can stop worrying about Making Tax Digital
As he is filmed walking down a street shaking hands with the public
Only question - when?
That was the President on the streets, not the person in charge.
My mum likes Hesketh.
The whole conflict has changed now, from what it was last weekend. UK didn’t have much of a stake in it last weekend, but now it’s about the straits of hormooz and keeping the oil flowing, US are committing ground troops up to five thousand of them. The UK is now going to have to put Warships in the gulf to play active role keeping the oil flowing, and grounds troops alongside the Americans in order to go after where the threats to tankers are coming from. Arn’t we?
Naval assistance possibly but even that may not be possible
The French have more naval ships in the area
However, it only takes a couple of tankers to be sunk in the narrow navigable channel to close the straits indefinitely
UK is now in this situation up to its eyebrows, whether it likes how things got here or not. The UK has to send a small armada to the gulf to keep the straits of Hormuz open in our national interest, as well as ground troops, boots on the ground alongside our coalition of allies, as the only way to go after and silence the threat to the tankers.
When you look at the bigger picture here, where this is naturally progressing - there’s no ceasefire nor regime change, just ongoing conflict from this point, with action by allies to secure passage of oil.
What are people seeing as the bigger picture and direction of travel and natural progression of the national interest if you are not seeing it like this?
You were the first one posted it yesterday, BigG and it’s on the front of the papers today, what I described here is exactly what you told us is the thinking of the UK Minister for Defence. 🤷♀️
Physicists on X are claiming they have evidence the universe is a Simulation, and that very soon it will be turned off, annihliating all "existence" as we know it
So at least I can stop worrying about Making Tax Digital
Could they hurry up and do it before tomorrow, otherwise i will be forced to watch England rugby team get absolutely smashed by the French while kicking the ball away every 2 seconds.
Trump: "There are bad people. They go out shooting protesters. You're a protester, they shoot you right through the head. This is an evil group of people."
Trump: "There are bad people. They go out shooting protesters. You're a protester, they shoot you right through the head. This is an evil group of people."
Which were a complete waste of money on an epic scale.
Meanwhile, the Americans built a class of submarines so successful that they ran out of things to sink. And actually curtailed production, long before the war was over, because of the nothing-left-to-sink thing.
it's like one of those photos where you see Picasso, Joyce and Beckett having a coffee in the same Paris cafe, or maybe David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan sharing a joint in Soho in 1969
Except it's the anti-version of that. The negative fame
The interesting question is: who is the hidden fourth person, behind Mandy?
Is there a fourth person?! Looks like a barbecue, to me
As for the photographer, I bet its Ghislaine Maxwell. Her job was to take lots and lots of kompromat, sorry, photographs
Which were a complete waste of money on an epic scale.
Meanwhile, the Americans built a class of submarines so successful that they ran out of things to sink. And actually curtailed production, long before the war was over, because of the nothing-left-to-sink thing.
Oh and the Brits built some Aircraft Carrier Tankers:
it's like one of those photos where you see Picasso, Joyce and Beckett having a coffee in the same Paris cafe, or maybe David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan sharing a joint in Soho in 1969
Except it's the anti-version of that. The negative fame
The interesting question is: who is the hidden fourth person, behind Mandy?
Is there a fourth person?! Looks like a barbecue, to me
As for the photographer, I bet its Ghislaine Maxwell. Her job was to take lots and lots of kompromat, sorry, photographs
Leon Brittain
You should retract that now
I did not flag it but it is simply outrageous
Rod Line Sinker
Who then
Marc François Chris Pincher
Are you trying to get banned for libelling random political opponents?
In my upcoming trans article (with discussant contributions from kyf_100 and Cyclefree, currently being pre-read by Taz and Andy_JS), another of the appendices (appendix 6) contains a list of comments prior to the article being written. In that discussion we see the following text...
This will be the most boring article ever published in the history of the Internet but I've come up with a snappy title to leaven the doughy misery of reading the fucking thing - "The Transgina Monologues".
As predicted.
No, @Dura_Ace is right, this sounds like the most monumentally boring thing in the Anthropocene Era, the only thing Dura got wrong is the name. It should be The Mangina Monologues, as that is funnier and it alliterates
Impressively, that manages to be both needlessly nasty and stratigraphically illiterate. Strictly speaking, we’re in the Holocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period, not the ‘Anthropocene Era’.
Impressively you manage to get your pompous correction completely and pompously incorrect
"What is the Anthropocene and why does it matter?"
"The Anthropocene Epoch is an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems."
Still digging, I see. Your original claim was “Anthropocene Era”, which is wrong. Even on the most generous reading, Anthropocene is only used informally as an unofficial epoch, not an era. Quietly changing the geological unit after the fact is correction by sleight of hand, not accuracy.
WTF are you on about now? You denied that the concept of "the Anthropocene" even existed, I showed you it did, now you're quibbling about era versus epoch to hide your tiny shrivelled testicles of shame
That last line actually made me spit out some tea and laugh out loud, bravo.
If I may continue pompously, I didn’t deny the existence of the Anthropocene, only that it isn't an era. However, I grant that I wrote it clumsily enough that your reading was a fair one.
What would PB be without a pinch of pomposity and a smidge of ambiguity?
Ah, good. I'm glad you've taken my slight against your testicles in good spirit. This is what makes PB special, we can insult each other's genitals and laugh about it later
BTW I do wish @viewcode well in his Trans Trilogy, the Ring Cycle of Misgendering, or whatever it is he (they?) is planning, but it is not surprising that some of us view a "20,000 word article" on this subject with less-than-eager anticipation
I sat through five hours of Tristan and Isolde in Edinburgh on Wednesday, and while it was great, just occasionally you felt that a five minute executive summary and three crisp bullet point conclusions wouldn't come amiss.
A friends of ours, who died three years ago, had a mission in life to convert everyone to a love of Wagner. In his memory we bought a DVD of Tristan and Isolde. We watched the 1st Act, which was looong. My husband and I decided to leave it a couple of years before we watched the 2nd Act but haven't yet found the will to go back.
Are there any Wagner enthusiasts who can recommend one of his works which is more accessible (and shorter)?
Wagner is fantastic on heroin
I had a classical music friend who got free tickets to the Royal Opera House in his job. Also he was into heroin, like me
We smoked a ten bag each then went to see Tristan - all 109 hours or whatever - and it was glorious. At times I nodded out for an hour or two but it didn’t matter. I woke to find the same people shrieking the same beautiful music. And it went on and on
It was genuinely sublime. I appreciate “take heroin if you’re going to see a Wagner opera” is not massively practical advice. But maybe you’ve got a good dealer
I'm guessing it was this performance since apparently the next one wasn't until 2009.
it's like one of those photos where you see Picasso, Joyce and Beckett having a coffee in the same Paris cafe, or maybe David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan sharing a joint in Soho in 1969
Except it's the anti-version of that. The negative fame
The interesting question is: who is the hidden fourth person, behind Mandy?
Is there a fourth person?! Looks like a barbecue, to me
As for the photographer, I bet its Ghislaine Maxwell. Her job was to take lots and lots of kompromat, sorry, photographs
Leon Brittain
You should retract that now
I did not flag it but it is simply outrageous
Rod Line Sinker
Who then
Marc François Chris Pincher
Are you trying to get banned for libelling random political opponents?
As he is filmed walking down a street shaking hands with the public
Only question - when?
That was the President on the streets, not the person in charge.
My mum likes Hesketh.
The whole conflict has changed now, from what it was last weekend. UK didn’t have much of a stake in it last weekend, but now it’s about the straits of hormooz and keeping the oil flowing, US are committing ground troops up to five thousand of them. The UK is now going to have to put Warships in the gulf to play active role keeping the oil flowing, and grounds troops alongside the Americans in order to go after where the threats to tankers are coming from. Arn’t we?
Naval assistance possibly but even that may not be possible
The French have more naval ships in the area
However, it only takes a couple of tankers to be sunk in the narrow navigable channel to close the straits indefinitely
UK is now in this situation up to its eyebrows, whether it likes how things got here or not. The UK has to send a small armada to the gulf to keep the straits of Hormuz open in our national interest, as well as ground troops, boots on the ground alongside our coalition of allies, as the only way to go after and silence the threat to the tankers.
When you look at the bigger picture here, where this is naturally progressing - there’s no ceasefire nor regime change, just ongoing conflict from this point, with action by allies to secure passage of oil.
What are people seeing as the bigger picture and direction of travel and natural progression of the national interest if you are not seeing it like this?
You were the first one posted it yesterday, BigG and it’s on the front of the papers today, what I described here is exactly what you told us is the thinking of the UK Minister for Defence. 🤷♀️
The UK doesn't have to do any of that. Not in the slightest.
Thank you. I have now read it and it was interesting, thank you.
I was once asked to write an article on the statistical elements of the Israel/Gaza war. I turned them down flat: not due to any issues with the war per se, but simply because I didn't know what the war aims of Israel actually were (they hadn't really sorted it out and were still in retaliation mode at that point) and the war aims of Gaza were simply insane, so attaching metrics to them were difficult.
Similarly here: what are the war aims of the United States here?
Kill the leadership? Well that's done, box ticked, mission accomplished, bring the ships home.
Arrange a popular uprising? That's not done and nowhere near it.
Convert Iran into a (near-enough) democracy like they did in Iraq? They're not even trying to do that.
Remove Iran's nuclear material? OK, how much have they got pre-war and how much remains now? Got numbers for that? No?
So I'm a bit fucked. I can discuss how difficult this is, but that's not what editors want (unless you know somebody who'll publish it?)
In my upcoming trans article (with discussant contributions from kyf_100 and Cyclefree, currently being pre-read by Taz and Andy_JS), another of the appendices (appendix 6) contains a list of comments prior to the article being written. In that discussion we see the following text...
This will be the most boring article ever published in the history of the Internet but I've come up with a snappy title to leaven the doughy misery of reading the fucking thing - "The Transgina Monologues".
As predicted.
No, @Dura_Ace is right, this sounds like the most monumentally boring thing in the Anthropocene Era, the only thing Dura got wrong is the name. It should be The Mangina Monologues, as that is funnier and it alliterates
Impressively, that manages to be both needlessly nasty and stratigraphically illiterate. Strictly speaking, we’re in the Holocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period, not the ‘Anthropocene Era’.
Impressively you manage to get your pompous correction completely and pompously incorrect
"What is the Anthropocene and why does it matter?"
"The Anthropocene Epoch is an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems."
Still digging, I see. Your original claim was “Anthropocene Era”, which is wrong. Even on the most generous reading, Anthropocene is only used informally as an unofficial epoch, not an era. Quietly changing the geological unit after the fact is correction by sleight of hand, not accuracy.
WTF are you on about now? You denied that the concept of "the Anthropocene" even existed, I showed you it did, now you're quibbling about era versus epoch to hide your tiny shrivelled testicles of shame
That last line actually made me spit out some tea and laugh out loud, bravo.
If I may continue pompously, I didn’t deny the existence of the Anthropocene, only that it isn't an era. However, I grant that I wrote it clumsily enough that your reading was a fair one.
What would PB be without a pinch of pomposity and a smidge of ambiguity?
Ah, good. I'm glad you've taken my slight against your testicles in good spirit. This is what makes PB special, we can insult each other's genitals and laugh about it later
BTW I do wish @viewcode well in his Trans Trilogy, the Ring Cycle of Misgendering, or whatever it is he (they?) is planning, but it is not surprising that some of us view a "20,000 word article" on this subject with less-than-eager anticipation
I sat through five hours of Tristan and Isolde in Edinburgh on Wednesday, and while it was great, just occasionally you felt that a five minute executive summary and three crisp bullet point conclusions wouldn't come amiss.
A friends of ours, who died three years ago, had a mission in life to convert everyone to a love of Wagner. In his memory we bought a DVD of Tristan and Isolde. We watched the 1st Act, which was looong. My husband and I decided to leave it a couple of years before we watched the 2nd Act but haven't yet found the will to go back.
Are there any Wagner enthusiasts who can recommend one of his works which is more accessible (and shorter)?
Wagner is fantastic on heroin
I had a classical music friend who got free tickets to the Royal Opera House in his job. Also he was into heroin, like me
We smoked a ten bag each then went to see Tristan - all 109 hours or whatever - and it was glorious. At times I nodded out for an hour or two but it didn’t matter. I woke to find the same people shrieking the same beautiful music. And it went on and on
It was genuinely sublime. I appreciate “take heroin if you’re going to see a Wagner opera” is not massively practical advice. But maybe you’ve got a good dealer
I'm guessing it was this performance since apparently the next one wasn't until 2009.
However, I could be wrong about the opera name, it might not have been Tristan. All I recall is that it was Wagner, it was beautiful, it was very very long, and it was weirdly suited to the state of heroin intoxication (forgive my amnesia, I was totally zonked)
In sum, this is rapidly turning into a nightmare scenario for the United States. Trump has no plan yet intends to escalate. Despite what the admin is saying publicly, this war is not close to over.
As he is filmed walking down a street shaking hands with the public
Only question - when?
That was the President on the streets, not the person in charge.
My mum likes Hesketh.
The whole conflict has changed now, from what it was last weekend. UK didn’t have much of a stake in it last weekend, but now it’s about the straits of hormooz and keeping the oil flowing, US are committing ground troops up to five thousand of them. The UK is now going to have to put Warships in the gulf to play active role keeping the oil flowing, and grounds troops alongside the Americans in order to go after where the threats to tankers are coming from. Arn’t we?
Naval assistance possibly but even that may not be possible
The French have more naval ships in the area
However, it only takes a couple of tankers to be sunk in the narrow navigable channel to close the straits indefinitely
UK is now in this situation up to its eyebrows, whether it likes how things got here or not. The UK has to send a small armada to the gulf to keep the straits of Hormuz open in our national interest, as well as ground troops, boots on the ground alongside our coalition of allies, as the only way to go after and silence the threat to the tankers.
When you look at the bigger picture here, where this is naturally progressing - there’s no ceasefire nor regime change, just ongoing conflict from this point, with action by allies to secure passage of oil.
What are people seeing as the bigger picture and direction of travel and natural progression of the national interest if you are not seeing it like this?
You were the first one posted it yesterday, BigG and it’s on the front of the papers today, what I described here is exactly what you told us is the thinking of the UK Minister for Defence. 🤷♀️
The UK doesn't have to do any of that. Not in the slightest.
You are utterly wrong.
The problem is, if the straits remain closed the next 6 months to a year, every single household and business in UK will feel it. Businesses will be destroyed. Inflation, especially energy bills and food prices will become rampant, perhaps even worse than the last energy crisis because this one ramps up more quickly and has power to be bigger and it’s route cause open ended. Every single media outlet today is saying recession for UK is now inevitable - but what’s coming can be a magnitude beyond mere recession, the economy actually wrecked in up to a year of negative growth, high interest payments, ever rising unemployment simultaneous with ever rising prices - a crisis on government actually being able to get more borrowing in order to pay our bills and service our growing debt - the sort of slump that leaves scars upon generations.
There’s what I described, as a plan to deal with the problem., which you just said no to - What’s the alternative plan? More borrowing and handouts to try and ease the pain, instead of going to the gulf with allies and dealing with the cause at source and clear it up as quick as possible.
The last attempt at throwing money at credit crisis, nearly £100Bn thrown at it by the conservatives, one tenth paid by windall tax, the rest was borrowing. The group of Labour MPs who have called for a 2p rise on tax for help with bills need to be recalled and thrown out of politics, for being criminally dumb to think that would raise anything other than a mere fraction of £100Bn of help used last time. We can’t have Labour MPs as totally thick as that plan remaining in Parliament, they need to be identified and removed.
Your position is clearly: don’t listen to MoonRabbit, we don’t need to do that. No proactive action is needed on the actual cause of all our pain and ruin. Have a cup of tea and doing nothing everything will turn out all right.
A visit to the dentist today and two observations:
1) I spent longer filling in the multiple forms beforehand than I did in the dentist's chair.
2) I paid for it, just as I have to pay for my eye test, my flu jab and any prescriptions I get - is the 'free' NHS only for oldies and those on benefits ?
In sum, this is rapidly turning into a nightmare scenario for the United States. Trump has no plan yet intends to escalate. Despite what the admin is saying publicly, this war is not close to over.
As he is filmed walking down a street shaking hands with the public
Only question - when?
That was the President on the streets, not the person in charge.
My mum likes Hesketh.
The whole conflict has changed now, from what it was last weekend. UK didn’t have much of a stake in it last weekend, but now it’s about the straits of hormooz and keeping the oil flowing, US are committing ground troops up to five thousand of them. The UK is now going to have to put Warships in the gulf to play active role keeping the oil flowing, and grounds troops alongside the Americans in order to go after where the threats to tankers are coming from. Arn’t we?
Naval assistance possibly but even that may not be possible
The French have more naval ships in the area
However, it only takes a couple of tankers to be sunk in the narrow navigable channel to close the straits indefinitely
UK is now in this situation up to its eyebrows, whether it likes how things got here or not. The UK has to send a small armada to the gulf to keep the straits of Hormuz open in our national interest, as well as ground troops, boots on the ground alongside our coalition of allies, as the only way to go after and silence the threat to the tankers.
When you look at the bigger picture here, where this is naturally progressing - there’s no ceasefire nor regime change, just ongoing conflict from this point, with action by allies to secure passage of oil.
What are people seeing as the bigger picture and direction of travel and natural progression of the national interest if you are not seeing it like this?
You were the first one posted it yesterday, BigG and it’s on the front of the papers today, what I described here is exactly what you told us is the thinking of the UK Minister for Defence. 🤷♀️
The UK doesn't have to do any of that. Not in the slightest.
You are utterly wrong.
The problem is, if the straits remain closed the next 6 months to a year, every single household and business in UK will feel it. Businesses will be destroyed. Inflation, especially energy bills and food prices will become rampant, perhaps even worse than the last energy crisis because this one ramps up more quickly and has power to be bigger and it’s route cause open ended. Every single media outlet today is saying recession for UK is now inevitable - but what’s coming can be a magnitude beyond mere recession, the economy actually wrecked in up to a year of negative growth, high interest payments, ever rising unemployment simultaneous with ever rising prices - a crisis on government actually being able to get more borrowing in order to pay our bills and service our growing debt - the sort of slump that leaves scars upon generations.
There’s what I described, as a plan to deal with the problem., which you just said no to - What’s the alternative plan? More borrowing and handouts to try and ease the pain, instead of going to the gulf with allies and dealing with the cause at source and clear it up as quick as possible.
The last attempt at throwing money at credit crisis, nearly £100Bn thrown at it by the conservatives, one tenth paid by windall tax, the rest was borrowing. The group of Labour MPs who have called for a 2p rise on tax for help with bills need to be recalled and thrown out of politics, for being criminally dumb to think that would raise anything other than a mere fraction of £100Bn of help used last time. We can’t have Labour MPs as totally thick as that plan remaining in Parliament, they need to be identified and removed.
Your position is clearly: don’t listen to MoonRabbit, we don’t need to do that. No proactive action is needed on the actual cause of all our pain and ruin. Have a cup of tea and doing nothing everything will turn out all right.
The electorate will listen to me, not you.
So your position is. The UK needs to re-open the Straits of Hormuz. With what? How? The US Navy won't. So how do we?
US to deploy 2,200 Marines to the Middle East amid expanding war The US plans to send a Marine expeditionary unit to the Middle East as the war with Iran continues to escalate, according to US officials.
ABC News reported that Washington intends to deploy a force of about 2,200 Marines on board three ships to the region.
A US defence official told Al Jazeera that the unit will deploy from the Marine Corps base in Okinawa, Japan, in support of ongoing military operations.
The official said the force includes about 2,500 personnel and will travel with naval vessels.
Physicists on X are claiming they have evidence the universe is a Simulation, and that very soon it will be turned off, annihliating all "existence" as we know it
So at least I can stop worrying about Making Tax Digital
Timely reminder: if anyone on PB wants to do one last ltd company tax return with the old system, do it before 31st March, when the system closes.
And everyone should download the last three years calculations from the website before that date. They claim you might need them for compliance. I do hope that doesn't mean they're throwing them away....
In my upcoming trans article (with discussant contributions from kyf_100 and Cyclefree, currently being pre-read by Taz and Andy_JS), another of the appendices (appendix 6) contains a list of comments prior to the article being written. In that discussion we see the following text...
This will be the most boring article ever published in the history of the Internet but I've come up with a snappy title to leaven the doughy misery of reading the fucking thing - "The Transgina Monologues".
As predicted.
No, @Dura_Ace is right, this sounds like the most monumentally boring thing in the Anthropocene Era, the only thing Dura got wrong is the name. It should be The Mangina Monologues, as that is funnier and it alliterates
Impressively, that manages to be both needlessly nasty and stratigraphically illiterate. Strictly speaking, we’re in the Holocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period, not the ‘Anthropocene Era’.
Impressively you manage to get your pompous correction completely and pompously incorrect
"What is the Anthropocene and why does it matter?"
"The Anthropocene Epoch is an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems."
Still digging, I see. Your original claim was “Anthropocene Era”, which is wrong. Even on the most generous reading, Anthropocene is only used informally as an unofficial epoch, not an era. Quietly changing the geological unit after the fact is correction by sleight of hand, not accuracy.
WTF are you on about now? You denied that the concept of "the Anthropocene" even existed, I showed you it did, now you're quibbling about era versus epoch to hide your tiny shrivelled testicles of shame
That last line actually made me spit out some tea and laugh out loud, bravo.
If I may continue pompously, I didn’t deny the existence of the Anthropocene, only that it isn't an era. However, I grant that I wrote it clumsily enough that your reading was a fair one.
What would PB be without a pinch of pomposity and a smidge of ambiguity?
Ah, good. I'm glad you've taken my slight against your testicles in good spirit. This is what makes PB special, we can insult each other's genitals and laugh about it later
BTW I do wish @viewcode well in his Trans Trilogy, the Ring Cycle of Misgendering, or whatever it is he (they?) is planning, but it is not surprising that some of us view a "20,000 word article" on this subject with less-than-eager anticipation
I sat through five hours of Tristan and Isolde in Edinburgh on Wednesday, and while it was great, just occasionally you felt that a five minute executive summary and three crisp bullet point conclusions wouldn't come amiss.
A friends of ours, who died three years ago, had a mission in life to convert everyone to a love of Wagner. In his memory we bought a DVD of Tristan and Isolde. We watched the 1st Act, which was looong. My husband and I decided to leave it a couple of years before we watched the 2nd Act but haven't yet found the will to go back.
Are there any Wagner enthusiasts who can recommend one of his works which is more accessible (and shorter)?
Wagner is fantastic on heroin
I had a classical music friend who got free tickets to the Royal Opera House in his job. Also he was into heroin, like me
We smoked a ten bag each then went to see Tristan - all 109 hours or whatever - and it was glorious. At times I nodded out for an hour or two but it didn’t matter. I woke to find the same people shrieking the same beautiful music. And it went on and on
It was genuinely sublime. I appreciate “take heroin if you’re going to see a Wagner opera” is not massively practical advice. But maybe you’ve got a good dealer
I'm guessing it was this performance since apparently the next one wasn't until 2009.
However, I could be wrong about the opera name, it might not have been Tristan. All I recall is that it was Wagner, it was beautiful, it was very very long, and it was weirdly suited to the state of heroin intoxication (forgive my amnesia, I was totally zonked)
I've been to see only one Wagner opera, but seen it twice: The Flying Dutchman. In Helsinki and, ahem, in Hull. Enthralled both times despite the very different productions. Helsinki was spectacular - what an opera house - and Opera North made a very fair stab at it, despite the half-empty venue. All I can say, from my own experience, is that it makes for a very good entry-level introduction to the old so-and-so.
Which were a complete waste of money on an epic scale.
Meanwhile, the Americans built a class of submarines so successful that they ran out of things to sink. And actually curtailed production, long before the war was over, because of the nothing-left-to-sink thing.
That was because they broke the Japanese naval codes so they knew where the ships were , where they were going and when.
If Trump gets angry about countries cutting deals with Iran to allow their own tankers through the straits, maybe he will start enforcing the blockade instead to make it all or nothing.
Iran and India cut a deal: two LPG tankers get through the strait.
That countries are engaging in bilateral discussions with Iran points to the success of the Iranian strategy--as well as the ongoing failure of the US to resolve the security crisis in the strait.
If Trump gets angry about countries cutting deals with Iran to allow their own tankers through the straits, maybe he will start enforcing the blockade instead to make it all or nothing.
Iran and India cut a deal: two LPG tankers get through the strait.
That countries are engaging in bilateral discussions with Iran points to the success of the Iranian strategy--as well as the ongoing failure of the US to resolve the security crisis in the strait.
If Trump gets angry about countries cutting deals with Iran to allow their own tankers through the straits, maybe he will start enforcing the blockade instead to make it all or nothing.
Iran and India cut a deal: two LPG tankers get through the strait.
That countries are engaging in bilateral discussions with Iran points to the success of the Iranian strategy--as well as the ongoing failure of the US to resolve the security crisis in the strait.
Smart: that guarantees Americans will pay more for petrol.
A visit to the dentist today and two observations:
1) I spent longer filling in the multiple forms beforehand than I did in the dentist's chair.
2) I paid for it, just as I have to pay for my eye test, my flu jab and any prescriptions I get - is the 'free' NHS only for oldies and those on benefits ?
1) My dentist encourages patients to fill in the paperwork online before the appointment.
2) I pay for dentist, but I am extremely fortunate to have a dentist that has some NHS patients so the fees are very much less than private.
Which were a complete waste of money on an epic scale.
Meanwhile, the Americans built a class of submarines so successful that they ran out of things to sink. And actually curtailed production, long before the war was over, because of the nothing-left-to-sink thing.
That was because they broke the Japanese naval codes so they knew where the ships were , where they were going and when.
That helped, but the Japanese approach to anti-submarine warfare and convoys was as dumb as a bag of hammers
If Trump gets angry about countries cutting deals with Iran to allow their own tankers through the straits, maybe he will start enforcing the blockade instead to make it all or nothing.
Iran and India cut a deal: two LPG tankers get through the strait.
That countries are engaging in bilateral discussions with Iran points to the success of the Iranian strategy--as well as the ongoing failure of the US to resolve the security crisis in the strait.
Smart: that guarantees Americans will pay more for petrol.
And some other Americans will make more selling it.
In sum, this is rapidly turning into a nightmare scenario for the United States. Trump has no plan yet intends to escalate. Despite what the admin is saying publicly, this war is not close to over.
Bahrain & Saudi Arabia Grands Prix to be cancelled according to BBC
Article says Neither event will be replaced, with the season being cut to 22 grands prix and F1 taking a commercial hit of more than £100m, given Bahrain and Saudi Arabia pay two of the highest hosting fees.
it's like one of those photos where you see Picasso, Joyce and Beckett having a coffee in the same Paris cafe, or maybe David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan sharing a joint in Soho in 1969
Except it's the anti-version of that. The negative fame
The interesting question is: who is the hidden fourth person, behind Mandy?
Is there a fourth person?! Looks like a barbecue, to me
As for the photographer, I bet its Ghislaine Maxwell. Her job was to take lots and lots of kompromat, sorry, photographs
Leon Brittain
You should retract that now
I did not flag it but it is simply outrageous
You cannot slander or libel the dead.
I heard the same story about a particular Home Secretary in Camden, Dulwich and Cardiff in the 1980s. I wouldn't dream of mentioning their name but as the stories were from wholly different sources they seemed reasonably compelling to me. Although I am of the opinion that Capricorn One was a documentary about Apollo 11.
If Trump gets angry about countries cutting deals with Iran to allow their own tankers through the straits, maybe he will start enforcing the blockade instead to make it all or nothing.
Iran and India cut a deal: two LPG tankers get through the strait.
That countries are engaging in bilateral discussions with Iran points to the success of the Iranian strategy--as well as the ongoing failure of the US to resolve the security crisis in the strait.
Trump believes in bilateral, doesn't he?
Those are rumours and the Epstein files associated with those rumours have been fully released. The fact that they are completely redacted is a mere coincidence. Trump has been exonerated and is completely lateral.
If the US puts boots on the ground I expect Congress will finally do something .
A lot of GOP politicians are up for re-election and they might get away with supporting the current ckusterfxck but boots on the ground is an altogether different scenario .
Which were a complete waste of money on an epic scale.
Meanwhile, the Americans built a class of submarines so successful that they ran out of things to sink. And actually curtailed production, long before the war was over, because of the nothing-left-to-sink thing.
That was because they broke the Japanese naval codes so they knew where the ships were , where they were going and when.
That helped, but the Japanese approach to anti-submarine warfare and convoys was as dumb as a bag of hammers
Yes but the key was the code breaking. The Americans were reduced to wasting torpedoes on junks
In my upcoming trans article (with discussant contributions from kyf_100 and Cyclefree, currently being pre-read by Taz and Andy_JS), another of the appendices (appendix 6) contains a list of comments prior to the article being written. In that discussion we see the following text...
This will be the most boring article ever published in the history of the Internet but I've come up with a snappy title to leaven the doughy misery of reading the fucking thing - "The Transgina Monologues".
As predicted.
No, @Dura_Ace is right, this sounds like the most monumentally boring thing in the Anthropocene Era, the only thing Dura got wrong is the name. It should be The Mangina Monologues, as that is funnier and it alliterates
Impressively, that manages to be both needlessly nasty and stratigraphically illiterate. Strictly speaking, we’re in the Holocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period, not the ‘Anthropocene Era’.
Impressively you manage to get your pompous correction completely and pompously incorrect
"What is the Anthropocene and why does it matter?"
"The Anthropocene Epoch is an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems."
Still digging, I see. Your original claim was “Anthropocene Era”, which is wrong. Even on the most generous reading, Anthropocene is only used informally as an unofficial epoch, not an era. Quietly changing the geological unit after the fact is correction by sleight of hand, not accuracy.
WTF are you on about now? You denied that the concept of "the Anthropocene" even existed, I showed you it did, now you're quibbling about era versus epoch to hide your tiny shrivelled testicles of shame
That last line actually made me spit out some tea and laugh out loud, bravo.
If I may continue pompously, I didn’t deny the existence of the Anthropocene, only that it isn't an era. However, I grant that I wrote it clumsily enough that your reading was a fair one.
What would PB be without a pinch of pomposity and a smidge of ambiguity?
Ah, good. I'm glad you've taken my slight against your testicles in good spirit. This is what makes PB special, we can insult each other's genitals and laugh about it later
BTW I do wish @viewcode well in his Trans Trilogy, the Ring Cycle of Misgendering, or whatever it is he (they?) is planning, but it is not surprising that some of us view a "20,000 word article" on this subject with less-than-eager anticipation
I sat through five hours of Tristan and Isolde in Edinburgh on Wednesday, and while it was great, just occasionally you felt that a five minute executive summary and three crisp bullet point conclusions wouldn't come amiss.
A friends of ours, who died three years ago, had a mission in life to convert everyone to a love of Wagner. In his memory we bought a DVD of Tristan and Isolde. We watched the 1st Act, which was looong. My husband and I decided to leave it a couple of years before we watched the 2nd Act but haven't yet found the will to go back.
Are there any Wagner enthusiasts who can recommend one of his works which is more accessible (and shorter)?
Wagner is fantastic on heroin
I had a classical music friend who got free tickets to the Royal Opera House in his job. Also he was into heroin, like me
We smoked a ten bag each then went to see Tristan - all 109 hours or whatever - and it was glorious. At times I nodded out for an hour or two but it didn’t matter. I woke to find the same people shrieking the same beautiful music. And it went on and on
It was genuinely sublime. I appreciate “take heroin if you’re going to see a Wagner opera” is not massively practical advice. But maybe you’ve got a good dealer
I'm guessing it was this performance since apparently the next one wasn't until 2009.
However, I could be wrong about the opera name, it might not have been Tristan. All I recall is that it was Wagner, it was beautiful, it was very very long, and it was weirdly suited to the state of heroin intoxication (forgive my amnesia, I was totally zonked)
I've been to see only one Wagner opera, but seen it twice: The Flying Dutchman. In Helsinki and, ahem, in Hull. Enthralled both times despite the very different productions. Helsinki was spectacular - what an opera house - and Opera North made a very fair stab at it, despite the half-empty venue. All I can say, from my own experience, is that it makes for a very good entry-level introduction to the old so-and-so.
For an entry-level Wagner opera, Die Meistersinger von Nurnburg works well. But the first Wagner opera I ever experienced was Siegfried; doesn't work so well as entry level.
As he is filmed walking down a street shaking hands with the public
Only question - when?
That was the President on the streets, not the person in charge.
My mum likes Hesketh.
The whole conflict has changed now, from what it was last weekend. UK didn’t have much of a stake in it last weekend, but now it’s about the straits of hormooz and keeping the oil flowing, US are committing ground troops up to five thousand of them. The UK is now going to have to put Warships in the gulf to play active role keeping the oil flowing, and grounds troops alongside the Americans in order to go after where the threats to tankers are coming from. Arn’t we?
Naval assistance possibly but even that may not be possible
The French have more naval ships in the area
However, it only takes a couple of tankers to be sunk in the narrow navigable channel to close the straits indefinitely
UK is now in this situation up to its eyebrows, whether it likes how things got here or not. The UK has to send a small armada to the gulf to keep the straits of Hormuz open in our national interest, as well as ground troops, boots on the ground alongside our coalition of allies, as the only way to go after and silence the threat to the tankers.
When you look at the bigger picture here, where this is naturally progressing - there’s no ceasefire nor regime change, just ongoing conflict from this point, with action by allies to secure passage of oil.
What are people seeing as the bigger picture and direction of travel and natural progression of the national interest if you are not seeing it like this?
You were the first one posted it yesterday, BigG and it’s on the front of the papers today, what I described here is exactly what you told us is the thinking of the UK Minister for Defence. 🤷♀️
The UK doesn't have to do any of that. Not in the slightest.
You are utterly wrong.
The problem is, if the straits remain closed the next 6 months to a year, every single household and business in UK will feel it. Businesses will be destroyed. Inflation, especially energy bills and food prices will become rampant, perhaps even worse than the last energy crisis because this one ramps up more quickly and has power to be bigger and it’s route cause open ended. Every single media outlet today is saying recession for UK is now inevitable - but what’s coming can be a magnitude beyond mere recession, the economy actually wrecked in up to a year of negative growth, high interest payments, ever rising unemployment simultaneous with ever rising prices - a crisis on government actually being able to get more borrowing in order to pay our bills and service our growing debt - the sort of slump that leaves scars upon generations.
There’s what I described, as a plan to deal with the problem., which you just said no to - What’s the alternative plan? More borrowing and handouts to try and ease the pain, instead of going to the gulf with allies and dealing with the cause at source and clear it up as quick as possible.
The last attempt at throwing money at credit crisis, nearly £100Bn thrown at it by the conservatives, one tenth paid by windall tax, the rest was borrowing. The group of Labour MPs who have called for a 2p rise on tax for help with bills need to be recalled and thrown out of politics, for being criminally dumb to think that would raise anything other than a mere fraction of £100Bn of help used last time. We can’t have Labour MPs as totally thick as that plan remaining in Parliament, they need to be identified and removed.
Your position is clearly: don’t listen to MoonRabbit, we don’t need to do that. No proactive action is needed on the actual cause of all our pain and ruin. Have a cup of tea and doing nothing everything will turn out all right.
The electorate will listen to me, not you.
So your position is. The UK needs to re-open the Straits of Hormuz. With what? How? The US Navy won't. So how do we?
I'm on favour of economic action, mass sale of dollar reserves until the idiot stops.
Oh dear, it's not even mid evening and the hysteria is starting.
@Fishing, in a superb post, outlined the sheer logistical complexity of any land invasion of Iran and the issues of administering and occupying a land of 93 million people.
No one is going to throw around nuclear weapons, there won't be a land invasion and as for Netanyahu, he's doubtless enjoying reading the Twitter rumours of his demise.
If Trump gets angry about countries cutting deals with Iran to allow their own tankers through the straits, maybe he will start enforcing the blockade instead to make it all or nothing.
Iran and India cut a deal: two LPG tankers get through the strait.
That countries are engaging in bilateral discussions with Iran points to the success of the Iranian strategy--as well as the ongoing failure of the US to resolve the security crisis in the strait.
Smart: that guarantees Americans will pay more for petrol.
And some other Americans will make more selling it.
Correct.
Drawing a very broad brush and counting everyone that works in the US energy industry, you get to a tiny bit over 2 million jobs. Although this includes -for example- people who work for (for example) pipeline companies.
There are, by point of comparison, more than 230 million Americans who own a car (or more).
If the US puts boots on the ground I expect Congress will finally do something .
A lot of GOP politicians are up for re-election and they might get away with supporting the current ckusterfxck but boots on the ground is an altogether different scenario .
In recent years, how many times have the Republicans demonstrated any sort of spine in dealing with Trump?
If the Republicans in the Senate had voted to convict him for his attempted coup in 2021, he wouldn't be in power now. Why should it suddenly be different because he's even more dementia addled and violent and frantically trying to cover up his sex crimes (which were hardly a secret before)?
Which were a complete waste of money on an epic scale.
Meanwhile, the Americans built a class of submarines so successful that they ran out of things to sink. And actually curtailed production, long before the war was over, because of the nothing-left-to-sink thing.
That was because they broke the Japanese naval codes so they knew where the ships were , where they were going and when.
That helped, but the Japanese approach to anti-submarine warfare and convoys was as dumb as a bag of hammers
Yes but the key was the code breaking. The Americans were reduced to wasting torpedoes on junks
The key was the Japenese not spending money on escort ships. Then sending individual ships along known shipping lanes. Or small convoys protected by one ship. That was slower on the surface than the American submarines.
ULTRA was used for sinking warships, mostly. The civilian stuff was so predictable, that you just needed to send submarines anywhere along a route,
If the US puts boots on the ground I expect Congress will finally do something .
A lot of GOP politicians are up for re-election and they might get away with supporting the current ckusterfxck but boots on the ground is an altogether different scenario .
In recent years, how many times have the Republicans demonstrated any sort of spine in dealing with Trump?
If the Republicans in the Senate had voted to convict him for his attempted coup in 2021, he wouldn't be in power now. Why should it suddenly be different because he's even more dementia addled and violent and frantically trying to cover up his sex crimes (which were hardly a secret before)?
I couldn't believe the Trump 45 DOJ canned the Zorro Ranch search.
it's like one of those photos where you see Picasso, Joyce and Beckett having a coffee in the same Paris cafe, or maybe David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan sharing a joint in Soho in 1969
Except it's the anti-version of that. The negative fame
The interesting question is: who is the hidden fourth person, behind Mandy?
Is there a fourth person?! Looks like a barbecue, to me
As for the photographer, I bet its Ghislaine Maxwell. Her job was to take lots and lots of kompromat, sorry, photographs
Physicists on X are claiming they have evidence the universe is a Simulation, and that very soon it will be turned off, annihliating all "existence" as we know it
So at least I can stop worrying about Making Tax Digital
So if God turns it off, surely that is just the coming to fruition of Revelation, in which case a war in the Middle East bringing it to the end is very appropriate as that is where it all started!
If the US puts boots on the ground I expect Congress will finally do something .
A lot of GOP politicians are up for re-election and they might get away with supporting the current ckusterfxck but boots on the ground is an altogether different scenario .
In recent years, how many times have the Republicans demonstrated any sort of spine in dealing with Trump?
If the Republicans in the Senate had voted to convict him for his attempted coup in 2021, he wouldn't be in power now. Why should it suddenly be different because he's even more dementia addled and violent and frantically trying to cover up his sex crimes (which were hardly a secret before)?
Boots on the ground is so toxic in the USA . Trump has backed himself into a corner because his “ mission accomplished “ now relies on the Strait of Hormuz being fully opened .
The Iranians know this is their only card to play so will do everything possible to keep that shut for most shipping .
A visit to the dentist today and two observations:
1) I spent longer filling in the multiple forms beforehand than I did in the dentist's chair.
2) I paid for it, just as I have to pay for my eye test, my flu jab and any prescriptions I get - is the 'free' NHS only for oldies and those on benefits ?
Charges for some NHS services date to 1950. Its why Nye Bevan resigned from the government.
Physicists on X are claiming they have evidence the universe is a Simulation, and that very soon it will be turned off, annihliating all "existence" as we know it
So at least I can stop worrying about Making Tax Digital
Could they hurry up and do it before tomorrow, otherwise i will be forced to watch England rugby team get absolutely smashed by the French while kicking the ball away every 2 seconds.
BBC article suggests that while England have kicked it more than everyone else, it’s some like 30 times vs 29, 28,, 27 etc. So perception is right and wrong.
A visit to the dentist today and two observations:
1) I spent longer filling in the multiple forms beforehand than I did in the dentist's chair.
2) I paid for it, just as I have to pay for my eye test, my flu jab and any prescriptions I get - is the 'free' NHS only for oldies and those on benefits ?
90% of prescriptions are free. Probably easier to go the whole way and cut out the admin.
Someone mentioned selling old hard drives. If you do so, think about this
Don't delete your data first. Encrypt the drive first. So when you format the drive, this destroys the encryption key. So even if someone managed to run a recovery utility on your drive, they would get encrypted data. Which would be very hard to distinguish from noise.
So -
1) Encrypt 2) Wipe 3) Run a secure wipe tool (for the extra paranoid).
Bahrain & Saudi Arabia Grands Prix to be cancelled according to BBC
Yet there was horse racing in Dubai today and no one has mentioned postponing the World Cup meeting in a fortnight.
This is all really really bad for UAE. They had been building up a (deserved) reputation as a low tax, highly ordered, thriving, ok a bit Canary Wharfy, place to do all manner of business. Not only that, but the beauty of multiple Emirates each with its own vibe nearly mirrored the choice afforded by the Swiss cantonal system.
Now they are in the shit, through almost no fault of their own, because reputations are hard won and easily lost. And their problem is that there remain formidably geopolitically stable competitors: Switzerland and Singapore, and (for corporations) Ireland.
One of my clients is in the process of closing its Dubai MENA HQ and moving it to…Ankara.
That’s not so say UAE is going to collapse. Look at Kuwait: still stinking rich and stable despite being invaded in living memory, Saudi which has periodic PR disasters and a long term brand problem, or Bahrain which nearly has a revolution in 2011. But its relentless rise has been curtailed and I suspect the EDB and the Swiss cantons are sleeping soundly in their beds.
Which were a complete waste of money on an epic scale.
Meanwhile, the Americans built a class of submarines so successful that they ran out of things to sink. And actually curtailed production, long before the war was over, because of the nothing-left-to-sink thing.
That was because they broke the Japanese naval codes so they knew where the ships were , where they were going and when.
That helped, but the Japanese approach to anti-submarine warfare and convoys was as dumb as a bag of hammers
Yes but the key was the code breaking. The Americans were reduced to wasting torpedoes on junks
The key was the Japenese not spending money on escort ships. Then sending individual ships along known shipping lanes. Or small convoys protected by one ship. That was slower on the surface than the American submarines.
ULTRA was used for sinking warships, mostly. The civilian stuff was so predictable, that you just needed to send submarines anywhere along a route,
What’s striking is just how incompetent the Japanese military leaders became, as the war progressed.
Someone mentioned selling old hard drives. If you do so, think about this
Don't delete your data first. Encrypt the drive first. So when you format the drive, this destroys the encryption key. So even if someone managed to run a recovery utility on your drive, they would get encrypted data. Which would be very hard to distinguish from noise.
So -
1) Encrypt 2) Wipe 3) Run a secure wipe tool (for the extra paranoid).
Hard drives are so expensive these days, it's barely worth attempting to get data off them.
If the US puts boots on the ground I expect Congress will finally do something .
A lot of GOP politicians are up for re-election and they might get away with supporting the current ckusterfxck but boots on the ground is an altogether different scenario .
In recent years, how many times have the Republicans demonstrated any sort of spine in dealing with Trump?
If the Republicans in the Senate had voted to convict him for his attempted coup in 2021, he wouldn't be in power now. Why should it suddenly be different because he's even more dementia addled and violent and frantically trying to cover up his sex crimes (which were hardly a secret before)?
This is all surely really really bad for the Republican brand. Unless Epic Fury suddenly turns into a surprise success, this means they own Middle East forever wars, well, forever.
A big chunk of MAGA’s schtick was getting America out of complex military entanglements in the Muslim world.
Someone mentioned selling old hard drives. If you do so, think about this
Don't delete your data first. Encrypt the drive first. So when you format the drive, this destroys the encryption key. So even if someone managed to run a recovery utility on your drive, they would get encrypted data. Which would be very hard to distinguish from noise.
So -
1) Encrypt 2) Wipe 3) Run a secure wipe tool (for the extra paranoid).
I think you could safely throw away a hard drive with the UK's nuclear codes (And even if it had the US over-rides too) without the slightest risk that anyone would read that data.
Throwing a hard drive in a bin is nearly 100% data safe I'd suggest. (Obviously it does depend a little on the bin)
Physicists on X are claiming they have evidence the universe is a Simulation, and that very soon it will be turned off, annihliating all "existence" as we know it
So at least I can stop worrying about Making Tax Digital
So if God turns it off, surely that is just the coming to fruition of Revelation, in which case a war in the Middle East bringing it to the end is very appropriate as that is where it all started!
Someone mentioned selling old hard drives. If you do so, think about this
Don't delete your data first. Encrypt the drive first. So when you format the drive, this destroys the encryption key. So even if someone managed to run a recovery utility on your drive, they would get encrypted data. Which would be very hard to distinguish from noise.
So -
1) Encrypt 2) Wipe 3) Run a secure wipe tool (for the extra paranoid).
Hard drives are so expensive these days, it's barely worth attempting to get data off them.
Given that the only things on these disks are TV show downloads I don't have much to worry about...
Also turns out I sold them for more than I paid for them back in 2019...
Physicists on X are claiming they have evidence the universe is a Simulation, and that very soon it will be turned off, annihliating all "existence" as we know it
So at least I can stop worrying about Making Tax Digital
Could they hurry up and do it before tomorrow, otherwise i will be forced to watch England rugby team get absolutely smashed by the French while kicking the ball away every 2 seconds.
BBC article suggests that while England have kicked it more than everyone else, it’s some like 30 times vs 29, 28,, 27 etc. So perception is right and wrong.
Well against Scotland, Italy and Ireland, England spent most of the time without the ball defending....
Actually the higher amount of kicking in international rugby is because defences are so good that once the play slows and defence is set it is nearly impossible to get through so lots of team then go to plan B which involves a kick. However, Englands appears the least effective as they signal it a mile off and repeat the same over and over again.
Physicists on X are claiming they have evidence the universe is a Simulation, and that very soon it will be turned off, annihliating all "existence" as we know it
So at least I can stop worrying about Making Tax Digital
So if God turns it off, surely that is just the coming to fruition of Revelation, in which case a war in the Middle East bringing it to the end is very appropriate as that is where it all started!
You seem disturbingly relaxed about this.
If we are just software then turning us off and on again is the go to solution.
Physicists on X are claiming they have evidence the universe is a Simulation, and that very soon it will be turned off, annihliating all "existence" as we know it
So at least I can stop worrying about Making Tax Digital
So if God turns it off, surely that is just the coming to fruition of Revelation, in which case a war in the Middle East bringing it to the end is very appropriate as that is where it all started!
You seem disturbingly relaxed about this.
If we are just software then turning us off and on again is the go to solution.
I do a red wine reboot most nights - not sure it helps
As he is filmed walking down a street shaking hands with the public
Only question - when?
That was the President on the streets, not the person in charge.
My mum likes Hesketh.
The whole conflict has changed now, from what it was last weekend. UK didn’t have much of a stake in it last weekend, but now it’s about the straits of hormooz and keeping the oil flowing, US are committing ground troops up to five thousand of them. The UK is now going to have to put Warships in the gulf to play active role keeping the oil flowing, and grounds troops alongside the Americans in order to go after where the threats to tankers are coming from. Arn’t we?
Naval assistance possibly but even that may not be possible
The French have more naval ships in the area
However, it only takes a couple of tankers to be sunk in the narrow navigable channel to close the straits indefinitely
UK is now in this situation up to its eyebrows, whether it likes how things got here or not. The UK has to send a small armada to the gulf to keep the straits of Hormuz open in our national interest, as well as ground troops, boots on the ground alongside our coalition of allies, as the only way to go after and silence the threat to the tankers.
When you look at the bigger picture here, where this is naturally progressing - there’s no ceasefire nor regime change, just ongoing conflict from this point, with action by allies to secure passage of oil.
What are people seeing as the bigger picture and direction of travel and natural progression of the national interest if you are not seeing it like this?
You were the first one posted it yesterday, BigG and it’s on the front of the papers today, what I described here is exactly what you told us is the thinking of the UK Minister for Defence. 🤷♀️
The UK doesn't have to do any of that. Not in the slightest.
You are utterly wrong.
The problem is, if the straits remain closed the next 6 months to a year, every single household and business in UK will feel it. Businesses will be destroyed. Inflation, especially energy bills and food prices will become rampant, perhaps even worse than the last energy crisis because this one ramps up more quickly and has power to be bigger and it’s route cause open ended. Every single media outlet today is saying recession for UK is now inevitable - but what’s coming can be a magnitude beyond mere recession, the economy actually wrecked in up to a year of negative growth, high interest payments, ever rising unemployment simultaneous with ever rising prices - a crisis on government actually being able to get more borrowing in order to pay our bills and service our growing debt - the sort of slump that leaves scars upon generations.
There’s what I described, as a plan to deal with the problem., which you just said no to - What’s the alternative plan? More borrowing and handouts to try and ease the pain, instead of going to the gulf with allies and dealing with the cause at source and clear it up as quick as possible.
The last attempt at throwing money at credit crisis, nearly £100Bn thrown at it by the conservatives, one tenth paid by windall tax, the rest was borrowing. The group of Labour MPs who have called for a 2p rise on tax for help with bills need to be recalled and thrown out of politics, for being criminally dumb to think that would raise anything other than a mere fraction of £100Bn of help used last time. We can’t have Labour MPs as totally thick as that plan remaining in Parliament, they need to be identified and removed.
Your position is clearly: don’t listen to MoonRabbit, we don’t need to do that. No proactive action is needed on the actual cause of all our pain and ruin. Have a cup of tea and doing nothing everything will turn out all right.
The electorate will listen to me, not you.
In what dream-like scenario of yours does the UK make the difference between the Straits staying open or not?
Physicists on X are claiming they have evidence the universe is a Simulation, and that very soon it will be turned off, annihliating all "existence" as we know it
So at least I can stop worrying about Making Tax Digital
So if God turns it off, surely that is just the coming to fruition of Revelation, in which case a war in the Middle East bringing it to the end is very appropriate as that is where it all started!
You seem disturbingly relaxed about this.
Let us just hope there are still local government by elections in heaven...or hell!
If Trump gets angry about countries cutting deals with Iran to allow their own tankers through the straits, maybe he will start enforcing the blockade instead to make it all or nothing.
Iran and India cut a deal: two LPG tankers get through the strait.
That countries are engaging in bilateral discussions with Iran points to the success of the Iranian strategy--as well as the ongoing failure of the US to resolve the security crisis in the strait.
Smart: that guarantees Americans will pay more for petrol.
And some other Americans will make more selling it.
Correct.
Drawing a very broad brush and counting everyone that works in the US energy industry, you get to a tiny bit over 2 million jobs. Although this includes -for example- people who work for (for example) pipeline companies.
There are, by point of comparison, more than 230 million Americans who own a car (or more).
In all the coverage of Iran and energy prices, nobody seems to be talking about what happens if the conflict drags on and the US reimposes the crude oil export restrictions that were in place 1975-2015. That would take 4m bpd out of global markets - 3.9% of consumption…
The WTI benchmark would likely plummet and American motorists would be laughing. But international benchmarks like Brent would skyrocket. Maybe then we would see the $200/bbl scenario the Iranians keep threatening…
Hegseth: "We will keep pushing, keep advancing. No quarter, no mercy for our enemies."
No quarter is the refusal to take prisoners and instead just execute everyone. It's been considered a war crime for over a century.
Difficult to take prisoners when you don't have the balls to commit anyone on the ground to actually do it. So in that sense he's correct.
A unit of marines is on its way to the Middle East apparently.
The problem is...US marines repositioned themselves a few years ago to be a force that takes ground via marine landings, not a force that holds ground via protracted land warfare. This is why they got rid of their Abrams tanks (we should have bought them, btw). What do the Marines legitimately hope to achieve in the area that the Army is not better suited for?
Its what I said yesterday. They need to seize the land opposite the straits and that strikes me as a job for marines. Not an easy job either.
Hegseth: "We will keep pushing, keep advancing. No quarter, no mercy for our enemies."
No quarter is the refusal to take prisoners and instead just execute everyone. It's been considered a war crime for over a century.
Difficult to take prisoners when you don't have the balls to commit anyone on the ground to actually do it. So in that sense he's correct.
A unit of marines is on its way to the Middle East apparently.
The problem is...US marines repositioned themselves a few years ago to be a force that takes ground via marine landings, not a force that holds ground via protracted land warfare. This is why they got rid of their Abrams tanks (we should have bought them, btw). What do the Marines legitimately hope to achieve in the area that the Army is not better suited for?
Its what I said yesterday. They need to seize the land opposite the straits and that strikes me as a job for marines. Not an easy job either.
A Saudi administered strait is plausible, but the US will have to do all the fighting now and into the future.
Physicists on X are claiming they have evidence the universe is a Simulation, and that very soon it will be turned off, annihliating all "existence" as we know it
So at least I can stop worrying about Making Tax Digital
You know, throw in the end of Quickbooks and you may have a deal.
If Trump gets angry about countries cutting deals with Iran to allow their own tankers through the straits, maybe he will start enforcing the blockade instead to make it all or nothing.
Iran and India cut a deal: two LPG tankers get through the strait.
That countries are engaging in bilateral discussions with Iran points to the success of the Iranian strategy--as well as the ongoing failure of the US to resolve the security crisis in the strait.
Smart: that guarantees Americans will pay more for petrol.
And some other Americans will make more selling it.
Correct.
Drawing a very broad brush and counting everyone that works in the US energy industry, you get to a tiny bit over 2 million jobs. Although this includes -for example- people who work for (for example) pipeline companies.
There are, by point of comparison, more than 230 million Americans who own a car (or more).
In all the coverage of Iran and energy prices, nobody seems to be talking about what happens if the conflict drags on and the US reimposes the crude oil export restrictions that were in place 1975-2015. That would take 4m bpd out of global markets - 3.9% of consumption…
The WTI benchmark would likely plummet and American motorists would be laughing. But international benchmarks like Brent would skyrocket. Maybe then we would see the $200/bbl scenario the Iranians keep threatening…
Here's the thing.
The US isn't self sufficient in oil.
Now, do they produce more than they consume?
They do indeed.
But that's not the thing as being self sufficient. A large portion of US refining capacity is setup to proess heavy, sour crudes - of the kind produced in Canada, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. If the US cut itself off from the rest of the world, the light, sweet crude that is produced in the Permian basin would... well... what would you do with it? You'd have to stop US drilling activity, because there's nowhere to store the oil.
In other words, if the US wanted to become self sufficient in oil, it would need to (a) take large parts of US refining capacity offline so as to convert refineries to produce deal with light, sweet crude (which would -generously- take months, and would be a disaster for the refiners); and (b) work out some way not to produce oil that can't be stored.
And while US refining capacity was offline, the US would need to import refined products from around the world, which would be an utter disaster for US gas/petrol prices. (And for petrol prices everywhere.)
Hegseth: "We will keep pushing, keep advancing. No quarter, no mercy for our enemies."
No quarter is the refusal to take prisoners and instead just execute everyone. It's been considered a war crime for over a century.
Difficult to take prisoners when you don't have the balls to commit anyone on the ground to actually do it. So in that sense he's correct.
A unit of marines is on its way to the Middle East apparently.
The problem is...US marines repositioned themselves a few years ago to be a force that takes ground via marine landings, not a force that holds ground via protracted land warfare. This is why they got rid of their Abrams tanks (we should have bought them, btw). What do the Marines legitimately hope to achieve in the area that the Army is not better suited for?
Its what I said yesterday. They need to seize the land opposite the straits and that strikes me as a job for marines. Not an easy job either.
A Saudi administered strait is plausible, but the US will have to do all the fighting now and into the future.
What if they made the Iranian side simply uninhabitable with a dirty bomb or something similar? I would put nothing past this coterie of thieves, conmen and spivs.
Turns out Donald Trump does fancy nuking Iran and a year later there is little left of the world's economy or population.
The internet survives though and on PB the debate goes on. There's anger about Trump destroying everything, it's the majority position, but there is pushback from certain posters.
"Hiroshima. It's ok when a Dem president does it then?"
"Well perhaps if the Dems had had a proper primary instead of choosing Kamala."
"Woke simply had to be defeated. It's a shame it came to this but it's all on the Dems."
"Imagine if Hillary had won in 2016. God help us."
Turns out Donald Trump does fancy nuking Iran and a year later there is little left of the world's economy or population.
The internet survives though and on PB the debate goes on. There's anger about Trump destroying everything, it's the majority position, but there is still pushback from certain posters.
"Hiroshima. It's ok when a Dem president does it then?"
"Well perhaps if the Dems had had a proper primary instead of choosing Kamala."
"Woke simply had to be defeated. It's a shame it came to this but it's all on the Dems."
"Imagine if Hillary had won in 2016. God help us."
"Hunter Biden's laptop."
NEW THREAD
You're missing the important stuff. Pineapple on pizza, is Die Hard a Christmas Movie, these debates will never end.
Turns out Donald Trump does fancy nuking Iran and a year later there is little left of the world's economy or population.
The internet survives though and on PB the debate goes on. There's anger about Trump destroying everything, it's the majority position, but there is still pushback from certain posters.
"Hiroshima. It's ok when a Dem president does it then?"
"Well perhaps if the Dems had had a proper primary instead of choosing Kamala."
"Woke simply had to be defeated. It's a shame it came to this but it's all on the Dems."
"Imagine if Hillary had won in 2016. God help us."
"Hunter Biden's laptop."
NEW THREAD
You're missing the important stuff. Pineapple on pizza, is Die Hard a Christmas Movie, these debates will never end.
What if Kamala had ordered deep pan pizza with pineapple wrapped in bacon, while watch Die Hard the Christmas Movie? Using Hunter Bidens laptop to place the order, obviously…
Turns out Donald Trump does fancy nuking Iran and a year later there is little left of the world's economy or population.
The internet survives though and on PB the debate goes on. There's anger about Trump destroying everything, it's the majority position, but there is still pushback from certain posters.
"Hiroshima. It's ok when a Dem president does it then?"
"Well perhaps if the Dems had had a proper primary instead of choosing Kamala."
"Woke simply had to be defeated. It's a shame it came to this but it's all on the Dems."
"Imagine if Hillary had won in 2016. God help us."
"Hunter Biden's laptop."
NEW THREAD
You're missing the important stuff. Pineapple on pizza, is Die Hard a Christmas Movie, these debates will never end.
Hegseth: "We will keep pushing, keep advancing. No quarter, no mercy for our enemies."
No quarter is the refusal to take prisoners and instead just execute everyone. It's been considered a war crime for over a century.
Difficult to take prisoners when you don't have the balls to commit anyone on the ground to actually do it. So in that sense he's correct.
A unit of marines is on its way to the Middle East apparently.
Look on the bright side. At least by the time Starmer gets around to mobilising our troops for the ground invasion the US Marines will have already killed all the Iranians.
What troops, all hollowed out.
We were a World beating fighting force under Sir Boris in 2022, and now after eighteen months of Starmer we are a military husk!
Have you been in the Guinness
No, it's just the 38,000th time he's tried the "Poor diddums Sir Keir gets treated worse by the media than Boris" ironic, self pity humour.
Turns out Donald Trump does fancy nuking Iran and a year later there is little left of the world's economy or population.
The internet survives though and on PB the debate goes on. There's anger about Trump destroying everything, it's the majority position, but there is still pushback from certain posters.
"Hiroshima. It's ok when a Dem president does it then?"
"Well perhaps if the Dems had had a proper primary instead of choosing Kamala."
"Woke simply had to be defeated. It's a shame it came to this but it's all on the Dems."
"Imagine if Hillary had won in 2016. God help us."
"Hunter Biden's laptop."
NEW THREAD
You're missing the important stuff. Pineapple on pizza, is Die Hard a Christmas Movie, these debates will never end.
Turns out Donald Trump does fancy nuking Iran and a year later there is little left of the world's economy or population.
The internet survives though and on PB the debate goes on. There's anger about Trump destroying everything, it's the majority position, but there is pushback from certain posters.
"Hiroshima. It's ok when a Dem president does it then?"
"Well perhaps if the Dems had had a proper primary instead of choosing Kamala."
"Woke simply had to be defeated. It's a shame it came to this but it's all on the Dems."
"Imagine if Hillary had won in 2016. God help us."
Comments
When you look at the bigger picture here, where this is naturally progressing - there’s no ceasefire nor regime change, just ongoing conflict from this point, with action by allies to secure passage of oil.
What are people seeing as the bigger picture and direction of travel and natural progression of the national interest if you are not seeing it like this?
You were the first one posted it yesterday, BigG and it’s on the front of the papers today, what I described here is exactly what you told us is the thinking of the UK Minister for Defence. 🤷♀️
The reason for that is some gross stupidity within the website code
https://x.com/DanNeidle/status/2032506756786511908
I mean seriously - don't let things be changed prior to confirmation...
Plus as you say 2 months to piece the armco together and 2 months to take it down
@atrupar
·
6m
Trump: "There are bad people. They go out shooting protesters. You're a protester, they shoot you right through the head. This is an evil group of people."
https://x.com/atrupar/status/2032515806958104609
Meanwhile, the Americans built a class of submarines so successful that they ran out of things to sink. And actually curtailed production, long before the war was over, because of the nothing-left-to-sink thing.
Line
Sinker
Who then
Marc François
Chris Pincher
4 Empire McCabe types
and
9 Rapana types
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_aircraft_carrier
If so, you are really, really dim.
https://x.com/its_talkeen/status/2032518446018343174
Leon, was I right about 1982, or was that too early?
@Shecorns88 😱🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Adios
Not in the slightest.
I was once asked to write an article on the statistical elements of the Israel/Gaza war. I turned them down flat: not due to any issues with the war per se, but simply because I didn't know what the war aims of Israel actually were (they hadn't really sorted it out and were still in retaliation mode at that point) and the war aims of Gaza were simply insane, so attaching metrics to them were difficult.
Similarly here: what are the war aims of the United States here?
- Kill the leadership? Well that's done, box ticked, mission accomplished, bring the ships home.
- Arrange a popular uprising? That's not done and nowhere near it.
- Convert Iran into a (near-enough) democracy like they did in Iraq? They're not even trying to do that.
- Remove Iran's nuclear material? OK, how much have they got pre-war and how much remains now? Got numbers for that? No?
So I'm a bit fucked. I can discuss how difficult this is, but that's not what editors want (unless you know somebody who'll publish it?)However, I could be wrong about the opera name, it might not have been Tristan. All I recall is that it was Wagner, it was beautiful, it was very very long, and it was weirdly suited to the state of heroin intoxication (forgive my amnesia, I was totally zonked)
1. Launch a nuclear strike
2. Commit troops to a land invasion
3. Announce Bibi is dead
In sum, this is rapidly turning into a nightmare scenario for the United States. Trump has no plan yet intends to escalate. Despite what the admin is saying publicly, this war is not close to over.
https://x.com/Hoffman8Jon/status/2032511682354852349
The problem is, if the straits remain closed the next 6 months to a year, every single household and business in UK will feel it. Businesses will be destroyed. Inflation, especially energy bills and food prices will become rampant, perhaps even worse than the last energy crisis because this one ramps up more quickly and has power to be bigger and it’s route cause open ended. Every single media outlet today is saying recession for UK is now inevitable - but what’s coming can be a magnitude beyond mere recession, the economy actually wrecked in up to a year of negative growth, high interest payments, ever rising unemployment simultaneous with ever rising prices - a crisis on government actually being able to get more borrowing in order to pay our bills and service our growing debt - the sort of slump that leaves scars upon generations.
There’s what I described, as a plan to deal with the problem., which you just said no to - What’s the alternative plan? More borrowing and handouts to try and ease the pain, instead of going to the gulf with allies and dealing with the cause at source and clear it up as quick as possible.
The last attempt at throwing money at credit crisis, nearly £100Bn thrown at it by the conservatives, one tenth paid by windall tax, the rest was borrowing. The group of Labour MPs who have called for a 2p rise on tax for help with bills need to be recalled and thrown out of politics, for being criminally dumb to think that would raise anything other than a mere fraction of £100Bn of help used last time. We can’t have Labour MPs as totally thick as that plan remaining in Parliament, they need to be identified and removed.
Your position is clearly: don’t listen to MoonRabbit, we don’t need to do that. No proactive action is needed on the actual cause of all our pain and ruin. Have a cup of tea and doing nothing everything will turn out all right.
The electorate will listen to me, not you.
1) I spent longer filling in the multiple forms beforehand than I did in the dentist's chair.
2) I paid for it, just as I have to pay for my eye test, my flu jab and any prescriptions I get - is the 'free' NHS only for oldies and those on benefits ?
The UK needs to re-open the Straits of Hormuz.
With what? How?
The US Navy won't.
So how do we?
US to deploy 2,200 Marines to the Middle East amid expanding war
The US plans to send a Marine expeditionary unit to the Middle East as the war with Iran continues to escalate, according to US officials.
ABC News reported that Washington intends to deploy a force of about 2,200 Marines on board three ships to the region.
A US defence official told Al Jazeera that the unit will deploy from the Marine Corps base in Okinawa, Japan, in support of ongoing military operations.
The official said the force includes about 2,500 personnel and will travel with naval vessels.
And everyone should download the last three years calculations from the website before that date. They claim you might need them for compliance. I do hope that doesn't mean they're throwing them away....
Enthralled both times despite the very different productions. Helsinki was spectacular - what an opera house - and Opera North made a very fair stab at it, despite the half-empty venue.
All I can say, from my own experience, is that it makes for a very good entry-level introduction to the old so-and-so.
https://x.com/gbrew24/status/2032498048723538082
Iran and India cut a deal: two LPG tankers get through the strait.
That countries are engaging in bilateral discussions with Iran points to the success of the Iranian strategy--as well as the ongoing failure of the US to resolve the security crisis in the strait.
Bahrain & Saudi Arabia Grands Prix to be cancelled according to BBC
2) I pay for dentist, but I am extremely fortunate to have a dentist that has some NHS patients so the fees are very much less than private.
Neither event will be replaced, with the season being cut to 22 grands prix and F1 taking a commercial hit of more than £100m, given Bahrain and Saudi Arabia pay two of the highest hosting fees.
I heard the same story about a particular Home Secretary in Camden, Dulwich and Cardiff in the 1980s. I wouldn't dream of mentioning their name but as the stories were from wholly different sources they seemed reasonably compelling to me. Although I am of the opinion that Capricorn One was a documentary about Apollo 11.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLOMerTy0X0
A lot of GOP politicians are up for re-election and they might get away with supporting the current ckusterfxck but boots on the ground is an altogether different scenario .
@Fishing, in a superb post, outlined the sheer logistical complexity of any land invasion of Iran and the issues of administering and occupying a land of 93 million people.
No one is going to throw around nuclear weapons, there won't be a land invasion and as for Netanyahu, he's doubtless enjoying reading the Twitter rumours of his demise.
Drawing a very broad brush and counting everyone that works in the US energy industry, you get to a tiny bit over 2 million jobs. Although this includes -for example- people who work for (for example) pipeline companies.
There are, by point of comparison, more than 230 million Americans who own a car (or more).
If the Republicans in the Senate had voted to convict him for his attempted coup in 2021, he wouldn't be in power now. Why should it suddenly be different because he's even more dementia addled and violent and frantically trying to cover up his sex crimes (which were hardly a secret before)?
ULTRA was used for sinking warships, mostly. The civilian stuff was so predictable, that you just needed to send submarines anywhere along a route,
Does that look like Petie with AMW and Epstein in those newly released photos?
To me, it doesn't look like His Lordship at all but I possibly need to see him in his underpants again to truly be able to identify him? 😂
Hope we've had a nice Friday? 😁
The Iranians know this is their only card to play so will do everything possible to keep that shut for most shipping .
Don't delete your data first. Encrypt the drive first. So when you format the drive, this destroys the encryption key. So even if someone managed to run a recovery utility on your drive, they would get encrypted data. Which would be very hard to distinguish from noise.
So -
1) Encrypt
2) Wipe
3) Run a secure wipe tool (for the extra paranoid).
Now they are in the shit, through almost no fault of their own, because reputations are hard won and easily lost. And their problem is that there remain formidably geopolitically stable competitors: Switzerland and Singapore, and (for corporations) Ireland.
One of my clients is in the process of closing its Dubai MENA HQ and moving it to…Ankara.
That’s not so say UAE is going to collapse. Look at Kuwait: still stinking rich and stable despite being invaded in living memory, Saudi which has periodic PR disasters and a long term brand problem, or Bahrain which nearly has a revolution in 2011. But its relentless rise has been curtailed and I suspect the EDB and the Swiss cantons are sleeping soundly in their beds.
Freight would need to start being shipped to the Middle East in the coming days.
A big chunk of MAGA’s schtick was getting America out of complex military entanglements in the Muslim world.
Throwing a hard drive in a bin is nearly 100% data safe I'd suggest. (Obviously it does depend a little on the bin)
Also turns out I sold them for more than I paid for them back in 2019...
Actually the higher amount of kicking in international rugby is because defences are so good that once the play slows and defence is set it is nearly impossible to get through so lots of team then go to plan B which involves a kick. However, Englands appears the least effective as they signal it a mile off and repeat the same over and over again.
In all the coverage of Iran and energy prices, nobody seems to be talking about what happens if the conflict drags on and the US reimposes the crude oil export restrictions that were in place 1975-2015. That would take 4m bpd out of global markets - 3.9% of consumption…
The WTI benchmark would likely plummet and American motorists would be laughing. But international benchmarks like Brent would skyrocket. Maybe then we would see the $200/bbl scenario the Iranians keep threatening…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETW5MUKuEj0
The US isn't self sufficient in oil.
Now, do they produce more than they consume?
They do indeed.
But that's not the thing as being self sufficient. A large portion of US refining capacity is setup to proess heavy, sour crudes - of the kind produced in Canada, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. If the US cut itself off from the rest of the world, the light, sweet crude that is produced in the Permian basin would... well... what would you do with it? You'd have to stop US drilling activity, because there's nowhere to store the oil.
In other words, if the US wanted to become self sufficient in oil, it would need to (a) take large parts of US refining capacity offline so as to convert refineries to produce deal with light, sweet crude (which would -generously- take months, and would be a disaster for the refiners); and (b) work out some way not to produce oil that can't be stored.
And while US refining capacity was offline, the US would need to import refined products from around the world, which would be an utter disaster for US gas/petrol prices. (And for petrol prices everywhere.)
The internet survives though and on PB the debate goes on. There's anger about Trump destroying everything, it's the majority position, but there is pushback from certain posters.
"Hiroshima. It's ok when a Dem president does it then?"
"Well perhaps if the Dems had had a proper primary instead of choosing Kamala."
"Woke simply had to be defeated. It's a shame it came to this but it's all on the Dems."
"Imagine if Hillary had won in 2016. God help us."
"Hunter Biden's laptop."
NEW THREAD
Maybe if someone laughs he will stop
"At least we missed the chaos of Ed Miliband"