@NatVasilyevaAP: Putin's spokesman Peskov has just denied allegations in the Trump report, says "the Kremlin does not engage in collecting compromising info"
LOL. Great doublespeak there. The Kremlin doesn't collect intelligence but the FSB sure does!
If anyone would get honey trapped, a vain, narcissistic, morally corrupt, risk taker who brags about grabbing women by their pussy with a penchant for hookers would be like taking sweets from a baby. Would explain too why Berlusconi and Shroeder became so close to Russia, though Berlusconi is such a vain man he would probably be proud for them to be posted. Straight out of the KGB copybook.
God knows how many videos of hookers with businessmen the Russians have; just in case so to speak. And if said businessman becomes something more, like POTUS per chance, jeez, what a result.
The Russians will have a *lot* of videos of businessmen with hookers.
A friend of mine in Moscow says for businessmen to always pick up girls in the strip clubs, as the 'models' flirting with you in the hotel bar are almost always not what they seem - if they're not employed by the government they'll be employed by whoever you're trying to do a deal with. Real James Bond stuff.
Honey trapping is the oldest and easiest form of espionage. Men are just so stupid....... especially rich, narcissistic, risk takers.....
I never get what the deal is with hookers. I wouldn't want my pecker anywhere near a place where someone like Trump or Berlusconi has been maybe hours before. Yuck.
SeanT could probably provide a better insight in whoring, but it just strikes me as all a bit unhygienic.
Well quite, but I guess a lot of the Type A salesmen have a different view. A surprising number of them can't go for a couple of days without a woman - so I guess when, after a few drinks, a stunning Svetlana offers them a very good night for a few hundred dollars they find it easy to go along.
Until they wake up to find Svetlana disappeared, along with all the data on their laptop.
Sort of on topic, I think Trump admires Putin because he's a nationalist that gets results, and he recognises something of himself in how he operates. Even though Putin is far cleverer and more dangerous.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, given how he wears controversy like a blanket, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
@NatVasilyevaAP: Putin's spokesman Peskov has just denied allegations in the Trump report, says "the Kremlin does not engage in collecting compromising info"
LOL. Great doublespeak there. The Kremlin doesn't collect intelligence but the FSB sure does!
If anyone would get honey trapped, a vain, narcissistic, morally corrupt, risk taker who brags about grabbing women by their pussy with a penchant for hookers would be like taking sweets from a baby. Would explain too why Berlusconi and Shroeder became so close to Russia, though Berlusconi is such a vain man he would probably be proud for them to be posted. Straight out of the KGB copybook.
God knows how many videos of hookers with businessmen the Russians have; just in case so to speak. And if said businessman becomes something more, like POTUS per chance, jeez, what a result.
That's Trump's problem here: it totally rings true. You would expect both him and the Russians to deny it. But they would, wouldn't they? Clinton denied all allegations against him until he was no longer able to.
Maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but if people condone what Buzzfeed has done, then they've lost any moral arguement about 'Fake News'.
Except that this isn't fake news; it's a genuine piece of raw intelligence which may or may not be true. Buzzfeed - and indeed any reputable new organisation - are be perfectly correct to publish it, with appropriate caveats. Whether it was right to have leaked it is another matter.
It is just a bunch of losers that are sore because Trump knows they are fakers ,who have been living high on the hog for many years , peddling crap that they are really important and saving the country whilst just hosing money away on little empires.
Sophie Ridge "There is serious reason to doubt the allegations" ... hate to spoil the party, but when even the publisher is questioning the veracity... https://t.co/FiZAKztvXA
According to the latest CNN poll Obama is leaving office with a 55% approval rating, Trump is beginning with an historically low 37%. Unless Trump turns that around quickly, Republican members of Congress are going to become very wary of associating too closely with him. And if something compromising does emerge it surely makes impeachment more likely. From a UK perspective, getting ratification of a Trump-negotiated trade deal that gives us a significant upside is going to get harder the more unpopular the President is.
The 2018 midterms give the Democrats a real opportunity IF they can take it to come back in the House and Senate. Whether they like it or not, the GOP will be tied to Trump's performance and to how he is viewed.
The other possibility is even though he was elected on the GOP ticket, it may be IF he alienates the GOP lawmakers, Trump will need to reach out to the Democrats to get anything done at all.
They'd need a stonking performance to get the Senate back, 2018 is a horrible map for them.
@NatVasilyevaAP: Putin's spokesman Peskov has just denied allegations in the Trump report, says "the Kremlin does not engage in collecting compromising info"
LOL. Great doublespeak there. The Kremlin doesn't collect intelligence but the FSB sure does!
If anyone would get honey trapped, a vain, narcissistic, morally corrupt, risk taker who brags about grabbing women by their pussy with a penchant for hookers would be like taking sweets from a baby. Would explain too why Berlusconi and Shroeder became so close to Russia, though Berlusconi is such a vain man he would probably be proud for them to be posted. Straight out of the KGB copybook.
God knows how many videos of hookers with businessmen the Russians have; just in case so to speak. And if said businessman becomes something more, like POTUS per chance, jeez, what a result.
The Russians will have a *lot* of videos of businessmen with hookers.
A friend of mine in Moscow says for businessmen to always pick up girls in the strip clubs, as the 'models' flirting with you in the hotel bar are almost always not what they seem - if they're not employed by the government they'll be employed by whoever you're trying to do a deal with. Real James Bond stuff.
A "friend"... Ok... There are so many prostitutes in Moscow and SPb that it would be simply impossible for them all to be in the pay of the FSB.
I don't think I'll run your proverb past Mrs Sandpit!
Yes, a genuine friend, he works as a local guide for foreign visitors.
Yes, there are thousands of hookers in Moscow so, if that's your thing, make sure you choose them, rather than go with the one who chooses you. The random hooker in a strip club won't know who you are and won't try to blackmail you or steal from you - the model in the cocktail dress and 6" Louboutins who says hi in your hotel bar, that's the one to avoid.
Sort of on topic, I think Trump admires Putin because he's a nationalist that gets results, and he recognises something of himself in how he operates. Even though Putin is far cleverer and more dangerous.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
But we'll see.
I still blame the GOP establishment for Trump. This election was theirs for the taking against an unpopular, tainted, already anointed, Democratic candidate. They should have had a system for weeding out someone like Trump who is totally unfit to be POTUS. Trump should only have been allowed to run as an Independent, if at all. Not as the GOP candidate.
It is the same for the Labour party establishment and Corbyn. They are to blame...they shouldn't had let him getting anywhere near.
Trump is likely to do to GOP what Corbyn is doing to the Labour Party.
Maybe, maybe not. They killed the Champion Stakes stone dead (IMO) by moving it to that supermarket Ascot.
Each track has its own character and the races there evolve to be associated with that character. A King George involves them coming round the far turn and then racing on on the flat over the last three fences over nearly a mile with the race being played out over who jumps those fences the better. We all remember the great finishes there as a result.
At Sandown, they come round the corner, jump the pond fence, then have one more fence and a short, uphill run-in.
Completely different.
The point of the King George is it provides the exact opposite test to the Gold Cup. The horse that can win both deserves to be champion as they will have demonstrated versatility in terms of track, jumping and perhaps ground conditions as well.
I agree Sandown isn't the right choice - I would move it to Huntingdon which already races on Boxing Day and is a JCR owned track. Yes, they would have to upgrade the track and facilities but for me it fits the requirement of being different from Cheltenham but not as far removed from Kempton as Sandown is
Another alternative would be Wincanton - a JCR track already racing on Boxing Day.
@NatVasilyevaAP: Putin's spokesman Peskov has just denied allegations in the Trump report, says "the Kremlin does not engage in collecting compromising info"
LOL. Great doublespeak there. The Kremlin doesn't collect intelligence but the FSB sure does!
If anyone would get honey trapped, a vain, narcissistic, morally corrupt, risk taker who brags about grabbing women by their pussy with a penchant for hookers would be like taking sweets from a baby. Would explain too why Berlusconi and Shroeder became so close to Russia, though Berlusconi is such a vain man he would probably be proud for them to be posted. Straight out of the KGB copybook.
God knows how many videos of hookers with businessmen the Russians have; just in case so to speak. And if said businessman becomes something more, like POTUS per chance, jeez, what a result.
The Russians will have a *lot* of videos of businessmen with hookers.
A friend of mine in Moscow says for businessmen to always pick up girls in the strip clubs, as the 'models' flirting with you in the hotel bar are almost always not what they seem - if they're not employed by the government they'll be employed by whoever you're trying to do a deal with. Real James Bond stuff.
Honey trapping is the oldest and easiest form of espionage. Men are just so stupid....... especially rich, narcissistic, risk takers.....
I never get what the deal is with hookers. I wouldn't want my pecker anywhere near a place where someone like Trump or Berlusconi has been maybe hours before. Yuck.
SeanT could probably provide a better insight in whoring, but it just strikes me as all a bit unhygienic.
Well quite, but I guess a lot of the Type A salesmen have a different view. A surprising number of them can't go for a couple of days without a woman - so I guess when, after a few drinks, a stunning Svetlana offers them a very good night for a few hundred dollars they find it easy to go along.
Until they wake up to find Svetlana disappeared, along with all the data on their laptop.
In Moscow the city maps you get given by your hotel display ads (in English) for escort services. (And I'm talking about the National, not some fleapit). Quite an eye opener.
@NatVasilyevaAP: Putin's spokesman Peskov has just denied allegations in the Trump report, says "the Kremlin does not engage in collecting compromising info"
LOL. Great doublespeak there. The Kremlin doesn't collect intelligence but the FSB sure does!
If anyone would get honey trapped, a vain, narcissistic, morally corrupt, risk taker who brags about grabbing women by their pussy with a penchant for hookers would be like taking sweets from a baby. Would explain too why Berlusconi and Shroeder became so close to Russia, though Berlusconi is such a vain man he would probably be proud for them to be posted. Straight out of the KGB copybook.
God knows how many videos of hookers with businessmen the Russians have; just in case so to speak. And if said businessman becomes something more, like POTUS per chance, jeez, what a result.
The Russians will have a *lot* of videos of businessmen with hookers.
A friend of mine in Moscow says for businessmen to always pick up girls in the strip clubs, as the 'models' flirting with you in the hotel bar are almost always not what they seem - if they're not employed by the government they'll be employed by whoever you're trying to do a deal with. Real James Bond stuff.
Honey trapping is the oldest and easiest form of espionage. Men are just so stupid....... especially rich, narcissistic, risk takers.....
I never get what the deal is with hookers. I wouldn't want my pecker anywhere near a place where someone like Trump or Berlusconi has been maybe hours before. Yuck.
SeanT could probably provide a better insight in whoring, but it just strikes me as all a bit unhygienic.
Well quite, but I guess a lot of the Type A salesmen have a different view. A surprising number of them can't go for a couple of days without a woman - so I guess when, after a few drinks, a stunning Svetlana offers them a very good night for a few hundred dollars they find it easy to go along.
Until they wake up to find Svetlana disappeared, along with all the data on their laptop.
In Moscow the city maps you get given by your hotel display ads (in English) for escort services. (And I'm talking about the National, not some fleapit). Quite an eye opener.
Las Vegas...you have them advertise on vans, waiting outside main hotels, handing out cards on the street.....
Sort of on topic, I think Trump admires Putin because he's a nationalist that gets results, and he recognises something of himself in how he operates. Even though Putin is far cleverer and more dangerous.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
But we'll see.
I still blame the GOP establishment for Trump. This election was theirs for the taking against an unpopular, tainted, already anointed, Democratic candidate. They should have had a system for weeding out someone like Trump who is totally unfit to be POTUS. Trump should only have been allowed to run as an Independent, if at all. Not as the GOP candidate.
It is the same for the Labour party establishment and Corbyn. They are to blame...they shouldn't had let him getting anywhere near.
Trump is likely to do to GOP what Corbyn is doing to the Labour Party.
I actually think that it has got to the stage with Corbyn that he is becoming a Labour asset. His unpopularity is such that Labour will get a boost and a chance of a hearing just by getting rid of him. And that really is now just a matter of when, not if. Yesterday was such a clusterf*** that even his doughtiest backers are struggling to defend him.
In related news, the Momentum push to recruit lots more Unite members to help McCluskey get re-elected attracted a grand total of 659 new applications.
Sort of on topic, I think Trump admires Putin because he's a nationalist that gets results, and he recognises something of himself in how he operates. Even though Putin is far cleverer and more dangerous.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
But we'll see.
I still blame the GOP establishment for Trump. This election was theirs for the taking against an unpopular, tainted, already anointed, Democratic candidate. They should have had a system for weeding out someone like Trump who is totally unfit to be POTUS. Trump should only have been allowed to run as an Independent, if at all. Not as the GOP candidate.
It is the same for the Labour party establishment and Corbyn. They are to blame...they shouldn't had let him getting anywhere near.
Trump is likely to do to GOP what Corbyn is doing to the Labour Party.
That's attacking the symptom not the cause though.
Who else - in either the GOP or Democrats - were taking seriously the concerns of blue collar workers or addressing immigration control?
Maybe, maybe not. They killed the Champion Stakes stone dead (IMO) by moving it to that supermarket Ascot.
Each track has its own character and the races there evolve to be associated with that character. A King George involves them coming round the far turn and then racing on on the flat over the last three fences over nearly a mile with the race being played out over who jumps those fences the better. We all remember the great finishes there as a result.
At Sandown, they come round the corner, jump the pond fence, then have one more fence and a short, uphill run-in.
Completely different.
The point of the King George is it provides the exact opposite test to the Gold Cup. The horse that can win both deserves to be champion as they will have demonstrated versatility in terms of track, jumping and perhaps ground conditions as well.
I agree Sandown isn't the right choice - I would move it to Huntingdon which already races on Boxing Day and is a JCR owned track. Yes, they would have to upgrade the track and facilities but for me it fits the requirement of being different from Cheltenham but not as far removed from Kempton as Sandown is
Another alternative would be Wincanton - a JCR track already racing on Boxing Day.
Sort of on topic, I think Trump admires Putin because he's a nationalist that gets results, and he recognises something of himself in how he operates. Even though Putin is far cleverer and more dangerous.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, given how he wears controversy like a blanket, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
But we'll see.
In addition, Trump has been banging on for decades about how everything is China's fault, which also suits Putin since (as warned by SeanT) China is really the emerging superpower in Putin's part of the world. Add in Trump publicly doubting whether NATO should lift a finger to defend ex-Soviet republics and there is a marriage made in a Moscow hotel room.
Sort of on topic, I think Trump admires Putin because he's a nationalist that gets results, and he recognises something of himself in how he operates. Even though Putin is far cleverer and more dangerous.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, given how he wears controversy like a blanket, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
But we'll see.
In addition, Trump has been banging on for decades about how everything is China's fault, which also suits Putin since (as warned by SeanT) China is really the emerging superpower in Putin's part of the world. Add in Trump publicly doubting whether NATO should lift a finger to defend ex-Soviet republics and there is a marriage made in a Moscow hotel room.
I'd be very scared if I were living in the Baltic States.
Sophie Ridge "There is serious reason to doubt the allegations" ... hate to spoil the party, but when even the publisher is questioning the veracity... https://t.co/FiZAKztvXA
As HRC found out after the FBI Director's intervention, these things have a habit of sticking, even if they turn out to be totally groundless. Trump made hay with that FBI letter, as did many of his supporters - on here and elsewhere. What goes around comes around.
Sort of on topic, I think Trump admires Putin because he's a nationalist that gets results, and he recognises something of himself in how he operates. Even though Putin is far cleverer and more dangerous.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
But we'll see.
I still blame the GOP establishment for Trump. This election was theirs for the taking against an unpopular, tainted, already anointed, Democratic candidate. They should have had a system for weeding out someone like Trump who is totally unfit to be POTUS. Trump should only have been allowed to run as an Independent, if at all. Not as the GOP candidate.
It is the same for the Labour party establishment and Corbyn. They are to blame...they shouldn't had let him getting anywhere near.
Trump is likely to do to GOP what Corbyn is doing to the Labour Party.
I actually think that it has got to the stage with Corbyn that he is becoming a Labour asset. His unpopularity is such that Labour will get a boost and a chance of a hearing just by getting rid of him. And that really is now just a matter of when, not if. Yesterday was such a clusterf*** that even his doughtiest backers are struggling to defend him.
In related news, the Momentum push to recruit lots more Unite members to help McCluskey get re-elected attracted a grand total of 659 new applications.
The problem with yesterday is that it reinforces the hardline Corbynite view that there is no point trying to play the Blairite media game since they will screw you anyway.
You'd like to think someone in his role is familiar with the J curve.
But the reality is that real wages are now rising, employment is at record highs, credit is dirt cheap and more plentiful again, the government continues to pump excess demand into the system by its deficit and the Brits are addicted to shopping. This is not going to change overnight.
Maybe, maybe not. They killed the Champion Stakes stone dead (IMO) by moving it to that supermarket Ascot.
Each track has its own character and the races there evolve to be associated with that character. A King George involves them coming round the far turn and then racing on on the flat over the last three fences over nearly a mile with the race being played out over who jumps those fences the better. We all remember the great finishes there as a result.
At Sandown, they come round the corner, jump the pond fence, then have one more fence and a short, uphill run-in.
Completely different.
The point of the King George is it provides the exact opposite test to the Gold Cup. The horse that can win both deserves to be champion as they will have demonstrated versatility in terms of track, jumping and perhaps ground conditions as well.
I agree Sandown isn't the right choice - I would move it to Huntingdon which already races on Boxing Day and is a JCR owned track. Yes, they would have to upgrade the track and facilities but for me it fits the requirement of being different from Cheltenham but not as far removed from Kempton as Sandown is
Another alternative would be Wincanton - a JCR track already racing on Boxing Day.
Maybe they can run in at Steepledowns?
Keep the distance, but don't bother with the jumps - move it to Wolverhampton on the second Wednesday in December at 7:15, between the grade 6s and 7s.
Sophie Ridge "There is serious reason to doubt the allegations" ... hate to spoil the party, but when even the publisher is questioning the veracity... https://t.co/FiZAKztvXA
As HRC found out after the FBI Director's intervention, these things have a habit of sticking, even if they turn out to be totally groundless. Trump made hay with that FBI letter, as did many of his supporters - on here and elsewhere. What goes around comes around.
Indeed, these things can stick if they sound like they might plausibly be true.
Witness a distraught Charlie Brooker doing his end of year show, realising that it would be the last time he'd make the David Cameron Getting Blown By A Pig joke.
Sort of on topic, I think Trump admires Putin because he's a nationalist that gets results, and he recognises something of himself in how he operates. Even though Putin is far cleverer and more dangerous.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
But we'll see.
I still blame the GOP establishment for Trump. This election was theirs for the taking against an unpopular, tainted, already anointed, Democratic candidate. They should have had a system for weeding out someone like Trump who is totally unfit to be POTUS. Trump should only have been allowed to run as an Independent, if at all. Not as the GOP candidate.
It is the same for the Labour party establishment and Corbyn. They are to blame...they shouldn't had let him getting anywhere near.
Trump is likely to do to GOP what Corbyn is doing to the Labour Party.
I actually think that it has got to the stage with Corbyn that he is becoming a Labour asset. His unpopularity is such that Labour will get a boost and a chance of a hearing just by getting rid of him. And that really is now just a matter of when, not if. Yesterday was such a clusterf*** that even his doughtiest backers are struggling to defend him.
In related news, the Momentum push to recruit lots more Unite members to help McCluskey get re-elected attracted a grand total of 659 new applications.
The problem with yesterday is that it reinforces the hardline Corbynite view that there is no point trying to play the Blairite media game since they will screw you anyway.
Except we were told he was playing the Trump game, where the voters get to see the authentic Jezza, with his populist ideas that will resonate over the heads of metropolitan media who have no idea of the groundswell of righteous anger out in the rust belt that will lift Corbyn into Downing Street.
< I'd be very scared if I were living in the Baltic States.
Why ? As members of NATO, they are protected by Article 5. IF Trump decides to renounce Article 5, then NATO will effectively collapse and we can all be scared if we want.
Or we can come up with some different solutions for our security and defence IF we can no longer rely on America. One option is to cosy up to Putin and make him the guarantor of European defence - another might be to set up a European wide defence and security arrangement.
It all boils down to one question - are we prepared to risk nuclear annihilation to protect Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn ? If not, where is the line- Warsaw, Berlin, Calais, Croydon ?
Looking at the actual text of the report by a 'former British intelligence operative' on the alleged Russian activity, there is something rather odd about the language. It doesn't read to me as though it were written by a native English speaker experienced in writing reports. For example (page 4):
FSB often uses coercion and blackmail to recruit most capable cyber operatives in Russia into its state-sponsored programmes. Heavy use also, both wittingly and unwittingly, of CIS emigres working in western corporations and ethnic Russians employed by neighbouring governments e.g. Latvia.
Miss Plato, believe Zimbabwe had inflation miles above that, and interest rates, at one point, of 65,000%.
That said, Venezuela is screwed. Damned shame. Oil revenues could've helped it develop the economy. Instead it got socialist madness.
you can buy Zimbabwe 100 trillion dollar notes on e-bay
I have the full set. Very pretty things.
Impresses the local pub if you give them one to stick on the beams. Next to Nigel Farage's pewter tankard.... in the "ostensibly impressive, but ultimately worthless" section
Philip Collins @PCollinsTimes 2h2 hours ago I have never seen a day of such rank incomptence at the top of poltics as Corbyn's yesterday. I felt sorry for him, so far out of his depth.
Miss Plato, believe Zimbabwe had inflation miles above that, and interest rates, at one point, of 65,000%.
That said, Venezuela is screwed. Damned shame. Oil revenues could've helped it develop the economy. Instead it got socialist madness.
you can buy Zimbabwe 100 trillion dollar notes on e-bay
I have the full set. Very pretty things.
Impresses the local pub if you give them one to stick on the beams. Next to Nigel Farage's pewter tankard.... in the "ostensibly impressive, but ultimately worthless" section
I'm aiming for a $100 billion one for my kids to go with Dr Evil's famous saying
Looking at the actual text of the report by a 'former British intelligence operative' on the alleged Russian activity, there is something rather odd about the language. It doesn't read to me as though it were written by a native English speaker experienced in writing reports. For example (page 4):
FSB often uses coercion and blackmail to recruit most capable cyber operatives in Russia into its state-sponsored programmes. Heavy use also, both wittingly and unwittingly, of CIS emigres working in western corporations and ethnic Russians employed by neighbouring governments e.g. Latvia.
Miss Plato, believe Zimbabwe had inflation miles above that, and interest rates, at one point, of 65,000%.
That said, Venezuela is screwed. Damned shame. Oil revenues could've helped it develop the economy. Instead it got socialist madness.
You are Alex Salmond AICMFP. Oh sorry, my mistake, you said socialist not Thatcherite madness, which was the SNP's complaint about the squandering of oil revenues.
< I'd be very scared if I were living in the Baltic States.
Why ? As members of NATO, they are protected by Article 5. IF Trump decides to renounce Article 5, then NATO will effectively collapse and we can all be scared if we want.
Or we can come up with some different solutions for our security and defence IF we can no longer rely on America. One option is to cosy up to Putin and make him the guarantor of European defence - another might be to set up a European wide defence and security arrangement.
It all boils down to one question - are we prepared to risk nuclear annihilation to protect Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn ? If not, where is the line- Warsaw, Berlin, Calais, Croydon ?
Sophie Ridge "There is serious reason to doubt the allegations" ... hate to spoil the party, but when even the publisher is questioning the veracity... https://t.co/FiZAKztvXA
As HRC found out after the FBI Director's intervention, these things have a habit of sticking, even if they turn out to be totally groundless. Trump made hay with that FBI letter, as did many of his supporters - on here and elsewhere. What goes around comes around.
Indeed, these things can stick if they sound like they might plausibly be true.
Witness a distraught Charlie Brooker doing his end of year show, realising that it would be the last time he'd make the David Cameron Getting Blown By A Pig joke.
Surely the bigger problem for Trump is this opens up the whole "prostitutes" thing - having denied the specificity of this allegation he'll be asked "have you EVER hired a prostitute?" - and there must be a reasonable chance there are ladies out there who might have a different story...
Sort of on topic, I think Trump admires Putin because he's a nationalist that gets results, and he recognises something of himself in how he operates. Even though Putin is far cleverer and more dangerous.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, given how he wears controversy like a blanket, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
But we'll see.
There'll come a point (perhaps quite soon) when Trump's interests will not coincide with those of Putin. It'll be morbidly interesting to see how Trump reacts then.
< I'd be very scared if I were living in the Baltic States.
Why ? As members of NATO, they are protected by Article 5. IF Trump decides to renounce Article 5, then NATO will effectively collapse and we can all be scared if we want.
Or we can come up with some different solutions for our security and defence IF we can no longer rely on America. One option is to cosy up to Putin and make him the guarantor of European defence - another might be to set up a European wide defence and security arrangement.
It all boils down to one question - are we prepared to risk nuclear annihilation to protect Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn ? If not, where is the line- Warsaw, Berlin, Calais, Croydon ?
Sort of on topic, I think Trump admires Putin because he's a nationalist that gets results, and he recognises something of himself in how he operates. Even though Putin is far cleverer and more dangerous.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, given how he wears controversy like a blanket, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
But we'll see.
There'll come a point (perhaps quite soon) when Trump's interests will not coincide with those of Putin. It'll be morbidly interesting to see how Trump reacts then.
True. Or perhaps more accurately, those of the USA colliding with Russia and what frictions that may cause either between them directly, or between Trump and other branches of the US federal government.
Despite the propaganda the US President isn't quite the almighty powerful position it's made out to be - and Congress is just as important.
Sort of on topic, I think Trump admires Putin because he's a nationalist that gets results, and he recognises something of himself in how he operates. Even though Putin is far cleverer and more dangerous.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
But we'll see.
I still blame the GOP establishment for Trump. This election was theirs for the taking against an unpopular, tainted, already anointed, Democratic candidate. They should have had a system for weeding out someone like Trump who is totally unfit to be POTUS. Trump should only have been allowed to run as an Independent, if at all. Not as the GOP candidate.
It is the same for the Labour party establishment and Corbyn. They are to blame...they shouldn't had let him getting anywhere near.
Trump is likely to do to GOP what Corbyn is doing to the Labour Party.
I actually think that it has got to the stage with Corbyn that he is becoming a Labour asset. His unpopularity is such that Labour will get a boost and a chance of a hearing just by getting rid of him. And that really is now just a matter of when, not if. Yesterday was such a clusterf*** that even his doughtiest backers are struggling to defend him.
In related news, the Momentum push to recruit lots more Unite members to help McCluskey get re-elected attracted a grand total of 659 new applications.
The problem with yesterday is that it reinforces the hardline Corbynite view that there is no point trying to play the Blairite media game since they will screw you anyway.
The number of hardline Corbynites is limited, though. Once the Unite election is done it will be a case of working out a candidate to replace Corbyn. The more I look at it, the more I think it will be Clive Lewis. Not my choice and deeply flawed, but he does not have Corbyn's baggage, is a much better media performer and has a decent back-story - crucially, as an ex-serviceman he is not someone who winces in the presence of a Union Jack.
I am developing a theory on the last few months which, if I have time, I may put in front of Mike and TSE for consideration as a published piece.
Keep the distance, but don't bother with the jumps - move it to Wolverhampton on the second Wednesday in December at 7:15, between the grade 6s and 7s.
Might as well go the whole hog...
There are any number of examples of races which have moved and have survived and even prospered. The Lincoln was once run on the Carholme but when that track was closed it went to Doncaster and the race has thrived ever since.
The King George doesn't have to be run at Kempton and can be re-created and rejuvenated as part of a Winter Festival of jumping at another venue (just not Sandown).
Sort of on topic, I think Trump admires Putin because he's a nationalist that gets results, and he recognises something of himself in how he operates. Even though Putin is far cleverer and more dangerous.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
But we'll see.
I still blame the GOP establishment for Trump. This election was theirs for the taking against an unpopular, tainted, already anointed, Democratic candidate. They should have had a system for weeding out someone like Trump who is totally unfit to be POTUS. Trump should only have been allowed to run as an Independent, if at all. Not as the GOP candidate.
It is the same for the Labour party establishment and Corbyn. They are to blame...they shouldn't had let him getting anywhere near.
Trump is likely to do to GOP what Corbyn is doing to the Labour Party.
I actually think that it has got to the stage with Corbyn that he is becoming a Labour asset. His unpopularity is such that Labour will get a boost and a chance of a hearing just by getting rid of him. And that really is now just a matter of when, not if. Yesterday was such a clusterf*** that even his doughtiest backers are struggling to defend him.
In related news, the Momentum push to recruit lots more Unite members to help McCluskey get re-elected attracted a grand total of 659 new applications.
The problem with yesterday is that it reinforces the hardline Corbynite view that there is no point trying to play the Blairite media game since they will screw you anyway.
The number of hardline Corbynites is limited, though. Once the Unite election is done it will be a case of working out a candidate to replace Corbyn. The more I look at it, the more I think it will be Clive Lewis. Not my choice and deeply flawed, but he does not have Corbyn's baggage, is a much better media performer and has a decent back-story - crucially, as an ex-serviceman he is not someone who winces in the presence of a Union Jack.
I am developing a theory on the last few months which, if I have time, I may put in front of Mike and TSE for consideration as a published piece.
< I'd be very scared if I were living in the Baltic States.
Why ? As members of NATO, they are protected by Article 5. IF Trump decides to renounce Article 5, then NATO will effectively collapse and we can all be scared if we want.
Or we can come up with some different solutions for our security and defence IF we can no longer rely on America. One option is to cosy up to Putin and make him the guarantor of European defence - another might be to set up a European wide defence and security arrangement.
It all boils down to one question - are we prepared to risk nuclear annihilation to protect Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn ? If not, where is the line- Warsaw, Berlin, Calais, Croydon ?
Putin might calculate Article 5 wouldn't be invoked, or the response would be so feeble that it wouldn't matter.
And he might be right. However, it is more likely he softly salami slices rather than giving NATO a casus belli. And, no, I don't think we would risk nuclear annihilation for those places - we'd send a naval/air task force and a few infantry battalions in a fully defensive posture, and if they were defeated (or at risk of defeat) we wouldn't nuke Putin's armoured forces, even if we might threaten to do so.
Funnily enough, I have absolutely no problem with a European only "NATO" being formed that the UK participates in, if we get to that, but I don't want it to be done under any circumstances through the auspices of the EU.
I see such things as a multilateral arrangement between sovereign nation states. The EU would see it as conferring upon it a major trapping of statehood.
< I'd be very scared if I were living in the Baltic States.
Why ? As members of NATO, they are protected by Article 5. IF Trump decides to renounce Article 5, then NATO will effectively collapse and we can all be scared if we want.
Or we can come up with some different solutions for our security and defence IF we can no longer rely on America. One option is to cosy up to Putin and make him the guarantor of European defence - another might be to set up a European wide defence and security arrangement.
It all boils down to one question - are we prepared to risk nuclear annihilation to protect Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn ? If not, where is the line- Warsaw, Berlin, Calais, Croydon ?
Looking at the actual text of the report by a 'former British intelligence operative' on the alleged Russian activity, there is something rather odd about the language. It doesn't read to me as though it were written by a native English speaker experienced in writing reports. For example (page 4):
FSB often uses coercion and blackmail to recruit most capable cyber operatives in Russia into its state-sponsored programmes. Heavy use also, both wittingly and unwittingly, of CIS emigres working in western corporations and ethnic Russians employed by neighbouring governments e.g. Latvia.
Yes, it could have been put in the public domain by the Kremlin themselves, as a way of muddying the waters should any legitimate intelligence damaging to their man emerge later. Having gone to all the trouble of putting Trump there, Vlad certainly won't want him dislodged.
Sort of on topic, I think Trump admires Putin because he's a nationalist that gets results, and he recognises something of himself in how he operates. Even though Putin is far cleverer and more dangerous.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
But we'll see.
I still blame the GOP establishment for Trump. This election was theirs for the taking against an unpopular, tainted, already anointed, Democratic candidate. They should have had a system for weeding out someone like Trump who is totally unfit to be POTUS. Trump should only have been allowed to run as an Independent, if at all. Not as the GOP candidate.
It is the same for the Labour party establishment and Corbyn. They are to blame...they shouldn't had let him getting anywhere near.
Trump is likely to do to GOP what Corbyn is doing to the Labour Party.
I actually think that it has got to the stage with Corbyn that he is becoming a Labour asset. His unpopularity is such that Labour will get a boost and a chance of a hearing just by getting rid of him. And that really is now just a matter of when, not if. Yesterday was such a clusterf*** that even his doughtiest backers are struggling to defend him.
In related news, the Momentum push to recruit lots more Unite members to help McCluskey get re-elected attracted a grand total of 659 new applications.
The problem with yesterday is that it reinforces the hardline Corbynite view that there is no point trying to play the Blairite media game since they will screw you anyway.
The number of hardline Corbynites is limited, though. Once the Unite election is done it will be a case of working out a candidate to replace Corbyn. The more I look at it, the more I think it will be Clive Lewis. Not my choice and deeply flawed, but he does not have Corbyn's baggage, is a much better media performer and has a decent back-story - crucially, as an ex-serviceman he is not someone who winces in the presence of a Union Jack.
I am developing a theory on the last few months which, if I have time, I may put in front of Mike and TSE for consideration as a published piece.
Lewis is available at 10 on BF.
I think he is being groomed and that he may turn out to Juan Carlos to Corbyn's Franco.
Sophie Ridge "There is serious reason to doubt the allegations" ... hate to spoil the party, but when even the publisher is questioning the veracity... https://t.co/FiZAKztvXA
As HRC found out after the FBI Director's intervention, these things have a habit of sticking, even if they turn out to be totally groundless. Trump made hay with that FBI letter, as did many of his supporters - on here and elsewhere. What goes around comes around.
Indeed, these things can stick if they sound like they might plausibly be true.
Witness a distraught Charlie Brooker doing his end of year show, realising that it would be the last time he'd make the David Cameron Getting Blown By A Pig joke.
Surely the bigger problem for Trump is this opens up the whole "prostitutes" thing - having denied the specificity of this allegation he'll be asked "have you EVER hired a prostitute?" - and there must be a reasonable chance there are ladies out there who might have a different story...
That would potentially be a worthwhile route for journalists to go down, even if the current story turns out to be rubbish.
His relationship with Melania dates from as far back as 1999, and they married in 2005. That's 18 years of history to find a hooker or two. I wouldn't bet against it.
Miss Plato, believe Zimbabwe had inflation miles above that, and interest rates, at one point, of 65,000%.
That said, Venezuela is screwed. Damned shame. Oil revenues could've helped it develop the economy. Instead it got socialist madness.
You are Alex Salmond AICMFP. Oh sorry, my mistake, you said socialist not Thatcherite madness, which was the SNP's complaint about the squandering of oil revenues.
Two cheeks of the same arse even if pointing in different directions.
Sophie Ridge "There is serious reason to doubt the allegations" ... hate to spoil the party, but when even the publisher is questioning the veracity... https://t.co/FiZAKztvXA
Wonderful handwaving from Plato. It's almost as if you didn't spend the entire campaign posting fake news about Clinton!
@NatVasilyevaAP: Putin's spokesman Peskov has just denied allegations in the Trump report, says "the Kremlin does not engage in collecting compromising info"
LOL. Great doublespeak there. The Kremlin doesn't collect intelligence but the FSB sure does!
If anyone would get honey trapped, a vain, narcissistic, morally corrupt, risk taker who brags about grabbing women by their pussy with a penchant for hookers would be like taking sweets from a baby. Would explain too why Berlusconi and Shroeder became so close to Russia, though Berlusconi is such a vain man he would probably be proud for them to be posted. Straight out of the KGB copybook.
God knows how many videos of hookers with businessmen the Russians have; just in case so to speak. And if said businessman becomes something more, like POTUS per chance, jeez, what a result.
The Russians will have a *lot* of videos of businessmen with hookers.
A friend of mine in Moscow says for businessmen to always pick up girls in the strip clubs, as the 'models' flirting with you in the hotel bar are almost always not what they seem - if they're not employed by the government they'll be employed by whoever you're trying to do a deal with. Real James Bond stuff.
A "friend"... Ok... There are so many prostitutes in Moscow and SPb that it would be simply impossible for them all to be in the pay of the FSB.
If you look at the way the Soviet Union worked, I'm not sure that's the case. Everyone reported on everyone else.
Besides, that's not the way it needs to work. Woman spends night for man; gets paid. Next day she's pulled up by security services. "You spent night with that man. We'll give you double if you spend another night, except this time at *this* hotel room."
In reality, it would basically be a British-French-German-Polish expeditionary force working alongside the limited home defences of the Baltic States.
Aside from deploying a carrier/F35s, a couple of Type 45s, logistics, intelligence,and perhaps a battalion of Royal Marines, I struggle to see what else we'd do.
Sophie Ridge "There is serious reason to doubt the allegations" ... hate to spoil the party, but when even the publisher is questioning the veracity... https://t.co/FiZAKztvXA
Wonderful handwaving from Plato. It's almost as if you didn't spend the entire campaign posting fake news about Clinton!
So it is only fake if it is about Clinton, your village are looking for you methinks.
Looking at the actual text of the report by a 'former British intelligence operative' on the alleged Russian activity, there is something rather odd about the language. It doesn't read to me as though it were written by a native English speaker experienced in writing reports. For example (page 4):
FSB often uses coercion and blackmail to recruit most capable cyber operatives in Russia into its state-sponsored programmes. Heavy use also, both wittingly and unwittingly, of CIS emigres working in western corporations and ethnic Russians employed by neighbouring governments e.g. Latvia.
Yes, it could have been put in the public domain by the Kremlin themselves, as a way of muddying the waters should any legitimate intelligence damaging to their man emerge later. Having gone to all the trouble of putting Trump there, Vlad certainly won't want him dislodged.
Actually, he may: chaos is its own disruption. Any further links between Russia and Trump's interests will be examined very closely. Whereas Trump being impeached and having to stand down would cause chaos and hurt the US. Russia wouldn't even have to do much, and there would be less risks than any attempts to control Trump that may be discovered.
Looking at the actual text of the report by a 'former British intelligence operative' on the alleged Russian activity, there is something rather odd about the language. It doesn't read to me as though it were written by a native English speaker experienced in writing reports. For example (page 4):
FSB often uses coercion and blackmail to recruit most capable cyber operatives in Russia into its state-sponsored programmes. Heavy use also, both wittingly and unwittingly, of CIS emigres working in western corporations and ethnic Russians employed by neighbouring governments e.g. Latvia.
Yes, it could have been put in the public domain by the Kremlin themselves, as a way of muddying the waters should any legitimate intelligence damaging to their man emerge later. Having gone to all the trouble of putting Trump there, Vlad certainly won't want him dislodged.
Actually, he may: chaos is its own disruption. Any further links between Russia and Trump's interests will be examined very closely. Whereas Trump being impeached and having to stand down would cause chaos and hurt the US. Russia wouldn't even have to do much, and there would be less risks than any attempts to control Trump that may be discovered.
All hypothetical, of course.
It and all the other stuff is more hysterical rather than hypothetical. It is just sore losers and crap journalists, spooks etc , sad that their gravy trains are heading for the buffers.
The number of hardline Corbynites is limited, though. Once the Unite election is done it will be a case of working out a candidate to replace Corbyn. The more I look at it, the more I think it will be Clive Lewis. Not my choice and deeply flawed, but he does not have Corbyn's baggage, is a much better media performer and has a decent back-story - crucially, as an ex-serviceman he is not someone who winces in the presence of a Union Jack.
I am developing a theory on the last few months which, if I have time, I may put in front of Mike and TSE for consideration as a published piece.
I was disappointed but not surprised to see several Corbynista's on my facebook timeline singing the praises of Corbyn's max wage policy, while totally ignoring his pro-brexit/anti free movement comments. The same types of Corbynistas who only a couple days earlier were still ranting about how awful brexit is etc. Actual doublethink among the most devoted Corbynista's.
Sophie Ridge "There is serious reason to doubt the allegations" ... hate to spoil the party, but when even the publisher is questioning the veracity... https://t.co/FiZAKztvXA
Wonderful handwaving from Plato. It's almost as if you didn't spend the entire campaign posting fake news about Clinton!
It's almost as if you didn't spend the entire campaign blind to what was about to happen.
Looking at the actual text of the report by a 'former British intelligence operative' on the alleged Russian activity, there is something rather odd about the language. It doesn't read to me as though it were written by a native English speaker experienced in writing reports. For example (page 4):
FSB often uses coercion and blackmail to recruit most capable cyber operatives in Russia into its state-sponsored programmes. Heavy use also, both wittingly and unwittingly, of CIS emigres working in western corporations and ethnic Russians employed by neighbouring governments e.g. Latvia.
Yes, it could have been put in the public domain by the Kremlin themselves, as a way of muddying the waters should any legitimate intelligence damaging to their man emerge later. Having gone to all the trouble of putting Trump there, Vlad certainly won't want him dislodged.
Actually, he may: chaos is its own disruption. Any further links between Russia and Trump's interests will be examined very closely. Whereas Trump being impeached and having to stand down would cause chaos and hurt the US. Russia wouldn't even have to do much, and there would be less risks than any attempts to control Trump that may be discovered.
All hypothetical, of course.
What would Russia gain from President Pence and the Establishment GOP though. If Trump is 'their' man surely they'd want to keep him there, rather than see him impeached?
Considering the membership, only a Corbyn anointed successor will do. But Corbyn is such a dipshit plonker he'll probably anoint McDonnell or Diane Abbot.
Incidentally what's happened to McDonnell? Has he gone AWOL? Corbyn's re-lauch yesterday was so hapless that maybe McDonnell is ill or something.
Lewis may well be surprisingly realpoitik, and bring a touch of the Harold Wilson pragmatism to the table. If he's as ideological as Corbyn, then Labour is truly doomed.
Looking at the actual text of the report by a 'former British intelligence operative' on the alleged Russian activity, there is something rather odd about the language. It doesn't read to me as though it were written by a native English speaker experienced in writing reports. For example (page 4):
FSB often uses coercion and blackmail to recruit most capable cyber operatives in Russia into its state-sponsored programmes. Heavy use also, both wittingly and unwittingly, of CIS emigres working in western corporations and ethnic Russians employed by neighbouring governments e.g. Latvia.
Yes, it could have been put in the public domain by the Kremlin themselves, as a way of muddying the waters should any legitimate intelligence damaging to their man emerge later. Having gone to all the trouble of putting Trump there, Vlad certainly won't want him dislodged.
Actually, he may: chaos is its own disruption. Any further links between Russia and Trump's interests will be examined very closely. Whereas Trump being impeached and having to stand down would cause chaos and hurt the US. Russia wouldn't even have to do much, and there would be less risks than any attempts to control Trump that may be discovered.
All hypothetical, of course.
Or was it MI6? Portraying the US and Russia as compromised regimes in a deadly embrace will greatly diminish the standing of both nations. Freed from the EU and seeking a new destiny, Britain can then emerge as the true trustee of the world's morals. Are we witnessing the beginnings of British Empire II?
Sophie Ridge "There is serious reason to doubt the allegations" ... hate to spoil the party, but when even the publisher is questioning the veracity... https://t.co/FiZAKztvXA
As HRC found out after the FBI Director's intervention, these things have a habit of sticking, even if they turn out to be totally groundless. Trump made hay with that FBI letter, as did many of his supporters - on here and elsewhere. What goes around comes around.
Indeed, these things can stick if they sound like they might plausibly be true.
Witness a distraught Charlie Brooker doing his end of year show, realising that it would be the last time he'd make the David Cameron Getting Blown By A Pig joke.
Surely the bigger problem for Trump is this opens up the whole "prostitutes" thing - having denied the specificity of this allegation he'll be asked "have you EVER hired a prostitute?" - and there must be a reasonable chance there are ladies out there who might have a different story...
Been done to death. There were much worse allegations going about during the campaign. What didn't hurt him them has no chance of hurting him now.l
There were other candidates that could appeal to the Blue Collar crowd...the Democrats had Biden. GOP had Christie. Both would have polled significantly than their party's respective candidates.
Looking at the actual text of the report by a 'former British intelligence operative' on the alleged Russian activity, there is something rather odd about the language. It doesn't read to me as though it were written by a native English speaker experienced in writing reports. For example (page 4):
FSB often uses coercion and blackmail to recruit most capable cyber operatives in Russia into its state-sponsored programmes. Heavy use also, both wittingly and unwittingly, of CIS emigres working in western corporations and ethnic Russians employed by neighbouring governments e.g. Latvia.
Yes, it could have been put in the public domain by the Kremlin themselves, as a way of muddying the waters should any legitimate intelligence damaging to their man emerge later. Having gone to all the trouble of putting Trump there, Vlad certainly won't want him dislodged.
Actually, he may: chaos is its own disruption. Any further links between Russia and Trump's interests will be examined very closely. Whereas Trump being impeached and having to stand down would cause chaos and hurt the US. Russia wouldn't even have to do much, and there would be less risks than any attempts to control Trump that may be discovered.
All hypothetical, of course.
What would Russia gain from President Pence and the Establishment GOP though. If Trump is 'their' man surely they'd want to keep him there, rather than see him impeached?
It may take some time for the whole impeachment process to go through - years, perhaps - and you'll have Trump's supporters fighting the process all the time. As is their right. In the meantime, political chaos.
Keeping him there has its own dangers. Impeachment for something not connected to Russia is another matter.
There were other candidates that could appeal to the Blue Collar crowd...the Democrats had Biden. GOP had Christie. Both would have polled significantly than their party's respective candidates.
Trump won by such slender margins.
No doubt, Biden should have run. He'd have attacked Trump in a way Clinton didn't bother.
Sophie Ridge "There is serious reason to doubt the allegations" ... hate to spoil the party, but when even the publisher is questioning the veracity... https://t.co/FiZAKztvXA
Wonderful handwaving from Plato. It's almost as if you didn't spend the entire campaign posting fake news about Clinton!
It's almost as if you didn't spend the entire campaign blind to what was about to happen.
Can't accuse Plato of that.
Still hasn't happened! 9 days to go. Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for that Parkinson's diagnosis to be confirmed. Not to mention the satanic worship and the kiddy fiddler pizza parlour story.
Considering the membership, only a Corbyn anointed successor will do. But Corbyn is such a dipshit plonker he'll probably anoint McDonnell or Diane Abbot.
Incidentally what's happened to McDonnell? Has he gone AWOL? Corbyn's re-lauch yesterday was so hapless that maybe McDonnell is ill or something.
Lewis may well be surprisingly realpoitik, and bring a touch of the Harold Wilson pragmatism to the table. If he's as ideological as Corbyn, then Labour is truly doomed.
McD surfaced briefly yesterday to "clarify" some of the sh*t flying about wage caps.
Looking at the actual text of the report by a 'former British intelligence operative' on the alleged Russian activity, there is something rather odd about the language. It doesn't read to me as though it were written by a native English speaker experienced in writing reports. For example (page 4):
FSB often uses coercion and blackmail to recruit most capable cyber operatives in Russia into its state-sponsored programmes. Heavy use also, both wittingly and unwittingly, of CIS emigres working in western corporations and ethnic Russians employed by neighbouring governments e.g. Latvia.
Yes, it could have been put in the public domain by the Kremlin themselves, as a way of muddying the waters should any legitimate intelligence damaging to their man emerge later. Having gone to all the trouble of putting Trump there, Vlad certainly won't want him dislodged.
Actually, he may: chaos is its own disruption. Any further links between Russia and Trump's interests will be examined very closely. Whereas Trump being impeached and having to stand down would cause chaos and hurt the US. Russia wouldn't even have to do much, and there would be less risks than any attempts to control Trump that may be discovered.
All hypothetical, of course.
Or was it MI6? Portraying the US and Russia as compromised regimes in a deadly embrace will greatly diminish the standing of both nations. Freed from the EU and seeking a new destiny, Britain can then emerge as the true trustee of the world's morals. Are we witnessing the beginnings of British Empire II?
I reckon it's Morris Dancer, controlling MI6 through use of subliminal messages hidden within his books. That man'll do anything to see his evil plans for world domination and enforced morris dancing for all come to fruition.
(And what is it we keep on hearing about an enormo-haddock? Obviously part of a sinister plan for world domination. And 'differential rear-end grip' is obviously just a codeword for something nefarious).
There were other candidates that could appeal to the Blue Collar crowd...the Democrats had Biden. GOP had Christie. Both would have polled significantly than their party's respective candidates.
Trump won by such slender margins.
No doubt, Biden should have run. He'd have attacked Trump in a way Clinton didn't bother.
Hillary shouldn't have run end of. Just too much baggage. Her time had passed. Neither Jeb Bush, the GOP establishment candidate. 3 Bushes is at least two too many.
"Incoming counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday denied that President-elect Trump was verbally briefed by heads of intelligence agencies last Friday about a report that Russian operatives may have personal and financial information about him.
The former Trump campaign manager called out intelligence officials for not briefing Trump on the newest development in their investigation of Russian hacking of U.S. entities."
There were other candidates that could appeal to the Blue Collar crowd...the Democrats had Biden. GOP had Christie. Both would have polled significantly than their party's respective candidates.
Trump won by such slender margins.
No doubt, Biden should have run. He'd have attacked Trump in a way Clinton didn't bother.
If Biden had run he'd be President next week. I understand his reasons for not wanting to, but wonder how much the Dem Establishment had already decided their 2016 candidate eight years ago.
Considering the membership, only a Corbyn anointed successor will do. But Corbyn is such a dipshit plonker he'll probably anoint McDonnell or Diane Abbot.
Incidentally what's happened to McDonnell? Has he gone AWOL? Corbyn's re-lauch yesterday was so hapless that maybe McDonnell is ill or something.
Lewis may well be surprisingly realpoitik, and bring a touch of the Harold Wilson pragmatism to the table. If he's as ideological as Corbyn, then Labour is truly doomed.
All the signs are that Lewis is being groomed. But it may now happen quicker than expected. Corbyn yesterday was so utterly disastrous even long-time supporters were lost for words. If I were a Labour strategist I would be having him on the TV as much as I could from here on in. The more people see of him, the more they are repelled by him, the more it is about him specifically, the better it will be for Labour when he goes (though it won't be great whatever happens, of course).
There were other candidates that could appeal to the Blue Collar crowd...the Democrats had Biden. GOP had Christie. Both would have polled significantly than their party's respective candidates.
Trump won by such slender margins.
No doubt, Biden should have run. He'd have attacked Trump in a way Clinton didn't bother.
Hillary shouldn't have run end of. Just too much baggage. Her time had passed. Neither Jeb Bush, the GOP establishment candidate. 3 Bushes is at least two too many.
Biden would have won by a landslide.
Yep, he appeared a couple of times in the campaign and tore into Trump, especially over veterans issues. A few solid weeks of that and the fabled rust belt forgotten wouldn't have given Trump a second thought.
There were other candidates that could appeal to the Blue Collar crowd...the Democrats had Biden. GOP had Christie. Both would have polled significantly than their party's respective candidates.
Trump won by such slender margins.
No doubt, Biden should have run. He'd have attacked Trump in a way Clinton didn't bother.
If Biden had run he'd be President next week. I understand his reasons for not wanting to, but wonder how much the Dem Establishment had already decided their 2016 candidate eight years ago.
I think there is more than a little truth in what you said. Obama agreed a pathway for Clinton IMO when Clinton gave up on the primaries in June 2008. One term as Secretary of State, and then four years to prepare her bid. Biden was going to be Clinton's Secretary of State.
Obama trashed his legacy by doing a deal with the Clintons.
There were other candidates that could appeal to the Blue Collar crowd...the Democrats had Biden. GOP had Christie. Both would have polled significantly than their party's respective candidates.
Trump won by such slender margins.
No doubt, Biden should have run. He'd have attacked Trump in a way Clinton didn't bother.
Hillary shouldn't have run end of. Just too much baggage. Her time had passed. Neither Jeb Bush, the GOP establishment candidate. 3 Bushes is at least two too many.
Biden would have won by a landslide.
Yep, he appeared a couple of times in the campaign and tore into Trump, especially over veterans issues. A few solid weeks of that and the fabled rust belt forgotten wouldn't have given Trump a second thought.
Biden might have won but that is not certain especially as the issues of immigration and outsourcing and the need for change would still have favoured Trump. Biden would have needed to won Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin and also hold Nevada and Virginia which is a pretty tall order
Considering the membership, only a Corbyn anointed successor will do. But Corbyn is such a dipshit plonker he'll probably anoint McDonnell or Diane Abbot.
Incidentally what's happened to McDonnell? Has he gone AWOL? Corbyn's re-lauch yesterday was so hapless that maybe McDonnell is ill or something.
Lewis may well be surprisingly realpoitik, and bring a touch of the Harold Wilson pragmatism to the table. If he's as ideological as Corbyn, then Labour is truly doomed.
All the signs are that Lewis is being groomed. But it may now happen quicker than expected. Corbyn yesterday was so utterly disastrous even long-time supporters were lost for words. If I were a Labour strategist I would be having him on the TV as much as I could from here on in. The more people see of him, the more they are repelled by him, the more it is about him specifically, the better it will be for Labour when he goes (though it won't be great whatever happens, of course).
Lewis has almost zero chance before 2020 having backed Trident
"A classified briefing on Russian hacking, given to both President Barack Obama and the President-elect, included allegations that Mr Trump or his surrogates had direct contact with the Kremlin before and during the 2016 election campaign."
"And the report also details 'perverted sexual acts' involving prostitutes alleged to have taken place in a hotel room in Moscow."
"Intelligence officials said they could not independently verify the embarrassing claims, compiled by a former British spy who was hired by Mr Trump’s political opponents."
The allegations were condemned by both "the Kremlin" and Trump's office. But wait!
"(O)fficials have performed checks on the former British spy and his sources and found them largely credible, CNN reported."
Sort of on topic, I think Trump admires Putin because he's a nationalist that gets results, and he recognises something of himself in how he operates. Even though Putin is far cleverer and more dangerous.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
But we'll see.
I still blame the GOP establishment for Trump. This election was theirs for the taking against an unpopular, tainted, already anointed, Democratic candidate. They should have had a system for weeding out someone like Trump who is totally unfit to be POTUS. Trump should only have been allowed to run as an Independent, if at all. Not as the GOP candidate.
It is the same for the Labour party establishment and Corbyn. They are to blame...they shouldn't had let him getting anywhere near.
Trump is likely to do to GOP what Corbyn is doing to the Labour Party.
I actually think that it has got to the stage with Corbyn that he is becoming a Labour asset. His unpopularity is such that Labour will get a boost and a chance of a hearing just by getting rid of him. And that really is now just a matter of when, not if. Yesterday was such a clusterf*** that even his doughtiest backers are struggling to defend him.
In related news, the Momentum push to recruit lots more Unite members to help McCluskey get re-elected attracted a grand total of 659 new applications.
The problem with yesterday is that it reinforces the hardline Corbynite view that there is no point trying to play the Blairite media game since they will screw you anyway.
The number of hardline Corbynites is limited, though. Once the Unite election is done it will be a case of working out a candidate to replace Corbyn. The more I look at it, the more I think it will be Clive Lewis. Not my choice and deeply flawed, but he does not have Corbyn's baggage, is a much better media performer and has a decent back-story - crucially, as an ex-serviceman he is not someone who winces in the presence of a Union Jack.
I am developing a theory on the last few months which, if I have time, I may put in front of Mike and TSE for consideration as a published piece.
Corbyn is not going anywhere and the Unite election means next to nothing after Miliband scrapped the electoral college and Corbyn was re reelected by the membership by a landslide
"Incoming counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday denied that President-elect Trump was verbally briefed by heads of intelligence agencies last Friday about a report that Russian operatives may have personal and financial information about him.
The former Trump campaign manager called out intelligence officials for not briefing Trump on the newest development in their investigation of Russian hacking of U.S. entities."
There were other candidates that could appeal to the Blue Collar crowd...the Democrats had Biden. GOP had Christie. Both would have polled significantly than their party's respective candidates.
Trump won by such slender margins.
No doubt, Biden should have run. He'd have attacked Trump in a way Clinton didn't bother.
Hillary shouldn't have run end of. Just too much baggage. Her time had passed. Neither Jeb Bush, the GOP establishment candidate. 3 Bushes is at least two too many.
Biden would have won by a landslide.
Yep, he appeared a couple of times in the campaign and tore into Trump, especially over veterans issues. A few solid weeks of that and the fabled rust belt forgotten wouldn't have given Trump a second thought.
Biden might have won but that is not certain especially as the issues of immigration and outsourcing and the need for change would still have favoured Trump. Biden would have needed to won Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin and also hold Nevada and Virginia which is a pretty tall order
If they just read the newspapers they will find Biden is nowhere, Trump won in a canter, next they will be saying if Biden had wheels he would be a wheelbarrow.
According to the latest CNN poll Obama is leaving office with a 55% approval rating, Trump is beginning with an historically low 37%. Unless Trump turns that around quickly, Republican members of Congress are going to become very wary of associating too closely with him. And if something compromising does emerge it surely makes impeachment more likely. From a UK perspective, getting ratification of a Trump-negotiated trade deal that gives us a significant upside is going to get harder the more unpopular the President is.
The 2018 midterms give the Democrats a real opportunity IF they can take it to come back in the House and Senate. Whether they like it or not, the GOP will be tied to Trump's performance and to how he is viewed.
The other possibility is even though he was elected on the GOP ticket, it may be IF he alienates the GOP lawmakers, Trump will need to reach out to the Democrats to get anything done at all.
They'd need a stonking performance to get the Senate back, 2018 is a horrible map for them.
Obama held the Senate in 2010 but he still lost the House and Reagan in 1982 saw the Democrats increase their majority in the House but the GOP hold the Senate too
"A classified briefing on Russian hacking, given to both President Barack Obama and the President-elect, included allegations that Mr Trump or his surrogates had direct contact with the Kremlin before and during the 2016 election campaign."
"And the report also details 'perverted sexual acts' involving prostitutes alleged to have taken place in a hotel room in Moscow."
"Intelligence officials said they could not independently verify the embarrassing claims, compiled by a former British spy who was hired by Mr Trump’s political opponents."
The allegations were condemned by both "the Kremlin" and Trump's office. But wait!
"(O)fficials have performed checks on the former British spy and his sources and found them largely credible, CNN reported."
Considering the membership, only a Corbyn anointed successor will do. But Corbyn is such a dipshit plonker he'll probably anoint McDonnell or Diane Abbot.
Incidentally what's happened to McDonnell? Has he gone AWOL? Corbyn's re-lauch yesterday was so hapless that maybe McDonnell is ill or something.
Lewis may well be surprisingly realpoitik, and bring a touch of the Harold Wilson pragmatism to the table. If he's as ideological as Corbyn, then Labour is truly doomed.
All the signs are that Lewis is being groomed. But it may now happen quicker than expected. Corbyn yesterday was so utterly disastrous even long-time supporters were lost for words. If I were a Labour strategist I would be having him on the TV as much as I could from here on in. The more people see of him, the more they are repelled by him, the more it is about him specifically, the better it will be for Labour when he goes (though it won't be great whatever happens, of course).
Just keep laying Keir at the moment on that book tbh.
"A classified briefing on Russian hacking, given to both President Barack Obama and the President-elect, included allegations that Mr Trump or his surrogates had direct contact with the Kremlin before and during the 2016 election campaign."
"And the report also details 'perverted sexual acts' involving prostitutes alleged to have taken place in a hotel room in Moscow."
"Intelligence officials said they could not independently verify the embarrassing claims, compiled by a former British spy who was hired by Mr Trump’s political opponents."
The allegations were condemned by both "the Kremlin" and Trump's office. But wait!
"(O)fficials have performed checks on the former British spy and his sources and found them largely credible, CNN reported."
Bye-bye "special relationship"?
A former British spy not a current one and Boris has only just come back from sucking up to Trump's top team
Comments
Until they wake up to find Svetlana disappeared, along with all the data on their laptop.
On the other side, Putin's endorsement of Trump is almost wholly cynical, and I doubt he has any real affection for him, or the USA. The 'dirt' is largely noise: whilst I don't doubt the Russians have plenty on him they probably also know they couldn't really blackmail him with it, given how he wears controversy like a blanket, and nor do they yet need to or want to.
But we'll see.
International Spectator
VENEZUELA
- Inflation: 720%
- 100 bolivars, the biggest bill, worth 5 US cents
- Money often weighed, not counted https://t.co/6RQJ9i16l8
"There is serious reason to doubt the allegations" ... hate to spoil the party, but when even the publisher is questioning the veracity... https://t.co/FiZAKztvXA
Yes, a genuine friend, he works as a local guide for foreign visitors.
Yes, there are thousands of hookers in Moscow so, if that's your thing, make sure you choose them, rather than go with the one who chooses you. The random hooker in a strip club won't know who you are and won't try to blackmail you or steal from you - the model in the cocktail dress and 6" Louboutins who says hi in your hotel bar, that's the one to avoid.
It is the same for the Labour party establishment and Corbyn. They are to blame...they shouldn't had let him getting anywhere near.
Trump is likely to do to GOP what Corbyn is doing to the Labour Party.
I agree Sandown isn't the right choice - I would move it to Huntingdon which already races on Boxing Day and is a JCR owned track. Yes, they would have to upgrade the track and facilities but for me it fits the requirement of being different from Cheltenham but not as far removed from Kempton as Sandown is
Another alternative would be Wincanton - a JCR track already racing on Boxing Day.
That said, Venezuela is screwed. Damned shame. Oil revenues could've helped it develop the economy. Instead it got socialist madness.
Hell, even the main road is called the Strip
In related news, the Momentum push to recruit lots more Unite members to help McCluskey get re-elected attracted a grand total of 659 new applications.
Who else - in either the GOP or Democrats - were taking seriously the concerns of blue collar workers or addressing immigration control?
But the reality is that real wages are now rising, employment is at record highs, credit is dirt cheap and more plentiful again, the government continues to pump excess demand into the system by its deficit and the Brits are addicted to shopping. This is not going to change overnight.
Might as well go the whole hog...
Witness a distraught Charlie Brooker doing his end of year show, realising that it would be the last time he'd make the David Cameron Getting Blown By A Pig joke.
Or something like that.
Or we can come up with some different solutions for our security and defence IF we can no longer rely on America. One option is to cosy up to Putin and make him the guarantor of European defence - another might be to set up a European wide defence and security arrangement.
It all boils down to one question - are we prepared to risk nuclear annihilation to protect Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn ? If not, where is the line- Warsaw, Berlin, Calais, Croydon ?
FSB often uses coercion and blackmail to recruit most capable cyber operatives in Russia into its state-sponsored programmes. Heavy use also, both wittingly and unwittingly, of CIS emigres working in western corporations and ethnic Russians employed by neighbouring governments e.g. Latvia.
Impresses the local pub if you give them one to stick on the beams. Next to Nigel Farage's pewter tankard.... in the "ostensibly impressive, but ultimately worthless" section
I have never seen a day of such rank incomptence at the top of poltics as Corbyn's yesterday. I felt sorry for him, so far out of his depth.
https://twitter.com/labourwhips/status/819138477526810626
Despite the propaganda the US President isn't quite the almighty powerful position it's made out to be - and Congress is just as important.
I am developing a theory on the last few months which, if I have time, I may put in front of Mike and TSE for consideration as a published piece.
The King George doesn't have to be run at Kempton and can be re-created and rejuvenated as part of a Winter Festival of jumping at another venue (just not Sandown).
And he might be right. However, it is more likely he softly salami slices rather than giving NATO a casus belli. And, no, I don't think we would risk nuclear annihilation for those places - we'd send a naval/air task force and a few infantry battalions in a fully defensive posture, and if they were defeated (or at risk of defeat) we wouldn't nuke Putin's armoured forces, even if we might threaten to do so.
Funnily enough, I have absolutely no problem with a European only "NATO" being formed that the UK participates in, if we get to that, but I don't want it to be done under any circumstances through the auspices of the EU.
I see such things as a multilateral arrangement between sovereign nation states. The EU would see it as conferring upon it a major trapping of statehood.
Mr. Brooke, I wonder if the P&P exceeds the price tag.
Mr. JohnL, what a slur on my good name! As is known, I dance the morris, not the river that Salmond appears to prefer:
https://twitter.com/PoliticalAP/status/602536059726094339
His relationship with Melania dates from as far back as 1999, and they married in 2005. That's 18 years of history to find a hooker or two. I wouldn't bet against it.
It's almost as if you didn't spend the entire campaign posting fake news about Clinton!
Besides, that's not the way it needs to work. Woman spends night for man; gets paid. Next day she's pulled up by security services. "You spent night with that man. We'll give you double if you spend another night, except this time at *this* hotel room."
Aside from deploying a carrier/F35s, a couple of Type 45s, logistics, intelligence,and perhaps a battalion of Royal Marines, I struggle to see what else we'd do.
The problem would be armoured defence.
All hypothetical, of course.
Can't accuse Plato of that.
Considering the membership, only a Corbyn anointed successor will do. But Corbyn is such a dipshit plonker he'll probably anoint McDonnell or Diane Abbot.
Incidentally what's happened to McDonnell? Has he gone AWOL? Corbyn's re-lauch yesterday was so hapless that maybe McDonnell is ill or something.
Lewis may well be surprisingly realpoitik, and bring a touch of the Harold Wilson pragmatism to the table. If he's as ideological as Corbyn, then Labour is truly doomed.
Tearing apart Damian Green on Government's spending cuts on Social Care.
Damian Green a rabbit caught in the headlights.
Surprise, surprise he argues for More Europe: https://mobile.twitter.com/JunckerEU/status/819141868835442688/photo/2
From before.....
There were other candidates that could appeal to the Blue Collar crowd...the Democrats had Biden. GOP had Christie. Both would have polled significantly than their party's respective candidates.
Trump won by such slender margins.
Keeping him there has its own dangers. Impeachment for something not connected to Russia is another matter.
Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for that Parkinson's diagnosis to be confirmed. Not to mention the satanic worship and the kiddy fiddler pizza parlour story.
(And what is it we keep on hearing about an enormo-haddock? Obviously part of a sinister plan for world domination. And 'differential rear-end grip' is obviously just a codeword for something nefarious).
Biden would have won by a landslide.
Obama trashed his legacy by doing a deal with the Clintons.
"A classified briefing on Russian hacking, given to both President Barack Obama and the President-elect, included allegations that Mr Trump or his surrogates had direct contact with the Kremlin before and during the 2016 election campaign."
"And the report also details 'perverted sexual acts' involving prostitutes alleged to have taken place in a hotel room in Moscow."
"Intelligence officials said they could not independently verify the embarrassing claims, compiled by a former British spy who was hired by Mr Trump’s political opponents."
The allegations were condemned by both "the Kremlin" and Trump's office. But wait!
"(O)fficials have performed checks on the former British spy and his sources and found them largely credible, CNN reported."
Bye-bye "special relationship"?
Edit: or pure Pee Pee, in the circs.
Mr. Jessop, there's nothing subliminal about the incredible power of my enormous man-cannon.
The only thread I've ever asked Mike for approval before publication in the five years I've been writing threads.
Me: Mike, I'm planning to do a thread on betting onthe size of Trump's todger, is that ok with you?
Mike: I hope PBers rise to the occasion and don't find it difficult to swallow.
I doubt she ever spoke against Miliband in the house; it would have been interesting to see.