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  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,749

    Dura_Ace said:

    The 5 best bands of the 80s were (in order): The Smiths, The Fall, Sonic Youth, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Public Enemy. All other responses are wrong.

    Any Best Bands of the 80s list that doesn't include either New Order or The Pogues suggests you spent that decade buzzing the tower, Mav.....

    May I also throw in The Jam and The Clash. Thnx.

    Both established themselves in the Seventies IMO.

    I stand by Husker Du...
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    Best 80s bands: Human League, Heaven 17, Eurythmics, Thompson Twins, Thomas Dolby.
  • AnazinaAnazina Posts: 3,487
    Alistair

    It was never a bad night for the Dems anyway, unless one was moved to believe Trumpton’s fake news. Yet it could be a very good night.

    One thing is for sure, the US is seventeen shades of rubbish at counting real votes in real ballot boxes.

    FL back in play...
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,749
    Barnesian said:

    Alistair said:

    AZ have just updated their numbers, adding about 100K new ballots... Sinema now a nose ahead:

    Sinema 48.91%
    McSally 48.80%

    https://results.arizona.vote/#/featured/4/0

    Boom!
    https://results.arizona.vote/#/

    Sinema 49.1%
    McSally 48.59%
    It is impressive how tight the US elections are. Even "safe seats" are often 60/40. Not much like East Ham there.
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    edited November 2018

    AndyJS said:

    Alistair said:

    Rick Scott tryi gnto get the vote counting stopped as he is losing ground as all votes are counted. Banana fucking republic

    https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1060718085596950528?s=19

    How does the "bad night for the Dems" narrative change if the take Fl, GA, and AZ plus near 40 gains in the house?

    Not counting all the votes on the night is my idea of a banana republic. A speedy result is important for democracy IMO.
    That is the tiniest problem facing the US electoral process and system ...
    It's the perfect situation for conspiracy theorists, to have a close election which keeps moving one way or another many days later as more votes are counted, which is the last thing America needs more of.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,992

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
  • SquareRootSquareRoot Posts: 7,095
    edited November 2018
    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
  • AnazinaAnazina Posts: 3,487
    kjh said:

    kjh said:

    RCS1000 did you see my link to Plato's blog site?

    Please share. I know a woman who might be her in real life.
    http://plato-says.blogspot.com/

    It is dormant though. The only reason for mentioning it was that it showed what she had been viewing which included this site most days.
    If this Plato is the same Plato who used to post here, then s/he may be in need of serious help. I knew things had gone slightly awry when s/he accused other posters of “taking my name in vain” whenever they mentioned him/her. It got progressively worse from there.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,992

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    You *thought* you met her...
  • AnazinaAnazina Posts: 3,487
    It

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    It could easily be a multiple user account, or one long since hacked by bots. Things are rarely as they seem on internet forums.
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    She posted a picture of herself on here about 5 years ago. I think she was born in about 1965 from various comments she posted.
  • not_on_firenot_on_fire Posts: 4,449
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    You *thought* you met her...
    Perhaps the cheques from Moscow have stopped.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670

    AndyJS said:

    Alistair said:

    Rick Scott tryi gnto get the vote counting stopped as he is losing ground as all votes are counted. Banana fucking republic

    https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1060718085596950528?s=19

    How does the "bad night for the Dems" narrative change if the take Fl, GA, and AZ plus near 40 gains in the house?

    Not counting all the votes on the night is my idea of a banana republic. A speedy result is important for democracy IMO.
    Well anything other than a repeat of Bush v Gore is a banana republic then, because the delay in Florida is because of the changes instigated there to avoid a repeat.

    Secrecy and failure to release vote counts is the mark of a banana republic. Given that the US releases tallies of votes literally as they are counted, faster than any other country I am aware of, your comparison is bizarre.
    It allows narratives to be built about who 'won' the election before the winner is decided and is now being used by the 'winner' to try and close down the counting of votes via strong arm tactics.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,992
    edited November 2018
    AndyJS said:

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    She posted a picture of herself on here about 5 years ago. I think she was born in about 1965 from various comments she posted.
    Didn't like those ghastly uncouth Radiohead yobboes?
  • TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    Ah, tbh I did occasionally wonder if Plato were two people sharing an account, since her backstory and age sometimes appeared to vary; not that these things matter very much on the interwebs. Didn't someone say Plato had been sighted on gab following a twitter purge of Russian trolls?
  • AnazinaAnazina Posts: 3,487

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    Ah, tbh I did occasionally wonder if Plato were two people sharing an account, since her backstory and age sometimes appeared to vary; not that these things matter very much on the interwebs. Didn't someone say Plato had been sighted on gab following a twitter purge of Russian trolls?
    I dare say two people is right at the lower end of the estimate!
  • AnorakAnorak Posts: 6,621

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    Ah, tbh I did occasionally wonder if Plato were two people sharing an account, since her backstory and age sometimes appeared to vary; not that these things matter very much on the interwebs. Didn't someone say Plato had been sighted on gab following a twitter purge of Russian trolls?
    Fainted upon realising the scale of the Great Brexit Betrayal. Eaten by her own cats.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    edited November 2018
    Foxy said:

    Barnesian said:

    Alistair said:

    AZ have just updated their numbers, adding about 100K new ballots... Sinema now a nose ahead:

    Sinema 48.91%
    McSally 48.80%

    https://results.arizona.vote/#/featured/4/0

    Boom!
    https://results.arizona.vote/#/

    Sinema 49.1%
    McSally 48.59%
    It is impressive how tight the US elections are. Even "safe seats" are often 60/40. Not much like East Ham there.
    Ha ha ha no.

    For a start many seats don't have a challenger and the Congress person is elected unopposed - can't get better than 100% to 0%. In 2016 a shade under 2000 of the total state and congressional seat available (4700ish) were unopposed elections. And there are plenty of 75/25 results - we just don't hear about them because they are not interesting.
  • not_on_firenot_on_fire Posts: 4,449
    *
    Anorak said:

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    Ah, tbh I did occasionally wonder if Plato were two people sharing an account, since her backstory and age sometimes appeared to vary; not that these things matter very much on the interwebs. Didn't someone say Plato had been sighted on gab following a twitter purge of Russian trolls?
    Fainted upon realising the scale of the Great Brexit Betrayal. Eaten by her own cats.
    *CLAPS*

    ;-)
  • Foxy said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    The 5 best bands of the 80s were (in order): The Smiths, The Fall, Sonic Youth, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Public Enemy. All other responses are wrong.

    Any Best Bands of the 80s list that doesn't include either New Order or The Pogues suggests you spent that decade buzzing the tower, Mav.....

    May I also throw in The Jam and The Clash. Thnx.

    Both established themselves in the Seventies IMO.

    I stand by Husker Du...
    gesundheit
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,749

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    Ah, tbh I did occasionally wonder if Plato were two people sharing an account, since her backstory and age sometimes appeared to vary; not that these things matter very much on the interwebs. Didn't someone say Plato had been sighted on gab following a twitter purge of Russian trolls?
    More likely to just vary her back story, as indeed do a number of online personas, inc yours truly. There were fairly consistent elements to her posting style though.

    I hope that she has merely given up the internet. While it can be good company for the infirm and socially isolated she really seemed to have been sucked into some very dark places.

    The internet is a social phenemenon like atomic fission, once invented it will not go away. It will take some time for humans to evolve mechanisms to cope with it. There is quite good evidence that the internet and smartphones have adverse effects on mental health.

  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,749
    Alistair said:

    Foxy said:

    Barnesian said:

    Alistair said:

    AZ have just updated their numbers, adding about 100K new ballots... Sinema now a nose ahead:

    Sinema 48.91%
    McSally 48.80%

    https://results.arizona.vote/#/featured/4/0

    Boom!
    https://results.arizona.vote/#/

    Sinema 49.1%
    McSally 48.59%
    It is impressive how tight the US elections are. Even "safe seats" are often 60/40. Not much like East Ham there.
    Ha ha ha no.

    For a start many seats don't have a challenger and the Congress person is elected unopposed - can't get better than 100% to 0%. In 2016 a shade under 2000 of the total state and congressional seat available (4700ish) were unopposed elections. And there are plenty of 75/25 results - we just don't hear about them because they are not interesting.
    I was thinking more of national contests. There seems to be quite a lot of split ticket voting too. A divided nation certainly, but perhaps not terminally so.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318

    Dura_Ace said:

    The 5 best bands of the 80s were (in order): The Smiths, The Fall, Sonic Youth, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Public Enemy. All other responses are wrong.

    Any Best Bands of the 80s list that doesn't include either New Order or The Pogues suggests you spent that decade buzzing the tower, Mav.....

    May I also throw in The Jam and The Clash. Thnx.

    And the Buzzcocks.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,154
    edited November 2018

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    Ah, tbh I did occasionally wonder if Plato were two people sharing an account, since her backstory and age sometimes appeared to vary; not that these things matter very much on the interwebs. Didn't someone say Plato had been sighted on gab following a twitter purge of Russian trolls?
    Before Plato went down the weirdo alt right/ conspiracy theory rabbit hole, a number of pbers met her in real life and her postings on here were consistent with the “real life” person.

    If I remember correctly she won poster of the year.

    For me it seemed more like she had some sort of breakdown. I seemed to remember that she was single, no job and money had got very tight from a previous comfortable middle class professional life with a partner.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,728
    On topic of 'missing' posters, I do hope Mr Tyndall's okay.

    I'm glad to say Mr Llama appears to be alive and well over on Twitter.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,819
    Sorry been away so in answer to posts re Plato:

    I used to read her twitter posts mainly to look at the accounts she was retweeting or commenting on. It was a fascinating insight into the Alt-right. Yes she got banned from twitter and moved to GAB, although I suspect that was before she got banned from twitter and was probably posting to both. Lots of the Alt-right had moved or were moving across anyway and posting about it on twitter even if they weren't getting banned. They had had enough of twitter. She then suddenly stopped posting many months ago. As I lost my source to these stories I looked for her on the internet and found her blog. It hadn't been posted to for years, but a sidebar shows accounts she was reading which I took at face value. ydoethur posted earlier to say it doesn't mean she has read these but that it is a link that shows when new posts (I assume he/she means articles and not our posts) appear here. If that is the case then all records of her appear to have disappeared many months ago.

    Although I have absolutely no qualifications to make this statement her posts (particularly on twitter) did seem to be those of someone susceptible to a cult might make.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,220
    The situation in Florida is almost beyond belief. Well it isn't, they've learnt nothing and forgotten nothing about elections since 2000.
  • FensterFenster Posts: 2,115
    edited November 2018
    Plato was relatively normal around eight years back. Pretty funny, liked a scrap with Tim etc. She claimed she was an ex Blairite gone Cameroon but there was always a sense of the reactionary about her.

    We ended up following one another on Twitter and she gradually disappeared down the Alt Right rabbit hole. I won't judge her on that; the internet has done strange things to otherwise intelligent people. I have friends who variously think the earth is flat, that the govt are spraying chemicals on us, that the Jews run the world.

    If you spend too much time seeking confirmation bias and aren't mentally strong enough to listen to and want to understand opposing viewpoints, then the internet is a dangerous place. I fear for what Twitter has done to the political divide. It's indirectly driving people to hate one another, to hate opposition figures and is solidifying people into identity, tribal politics. It won't end well.

    As much as I think Trump is a crass, vulgar liability I have to say that Plato - against the 90% grain of other posters on here - was right about him. Early on she saw a winner and actively (very actively) backed a winning horse in the face of ridicule. I wish Trump hadn't won, but Plato was right about him.

    She is perhaps a ridiculed, reactionary microcosm of the disenfranchised voter. And Trump rallied an uncomfortable amount of Americans who felt just like her.

  • OblitusSumMeOblitusSumMe Posts: 9,143
    edited November 2018
    Nigelb said:

    AndyJS said:

    AndyJS said:

    Alistair said:

    Rick Scott tryi gnto get the vote counting stopped as he is losing ground as all votes are counted. Banana fucking republic

    https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1060718085596950528?s=19

    How does the "bad night for the Dems" narrative change if the take Fl, GA, and AZ plus near 40 gains in the house?

    Not counting all the votes on the night is my idea of a banana republic. A speedy result is important for democracy IMO.
    Mail-in / early votes happen because the US is apparently incapable of providing enough polling stations, which means voting in person takes hours.
    Yes it's ridiculous. But they'd have to raise taxes to pay for more polling stations.
    I’m sure the savings could be found if elections were run by a single national authority rather than the absurd inefficency of each county (let alone each state) running its elections separately with different voting machines, ballot papers, procedures etc.
    In theory - but that would require States surrendering powers, which given that those are used for political advantage, isn't going to happen any time soon. The running of elections is almost as much a political battle ground as the elections themselves (though some states are markedly fairer).

    Travel times to polling stations, and the difficulty of taking time off work to vote (two hours is the legal allowance, which is grossly inadequate for many voters) are also issues.
    If they had postal-only voting for all the down ballot votes - State Congress, propositions, state judges, school janitors, etc - then the voting in person for Federal elections would be massively simpler and faster.

    So that would be a Federal ballot paper for Federal elections.
  • Back
    Fenster said:

    Plato was relatively normal around eight years back. Pretty funny, liked a scrap with Tim etc. She claimed she was an ex Blairite gone Cameroon but there was always a sense of the reactionary about her.

    We ended up following one another on Twitter and she gradually disappeared down the Alt Right rabbit hole. I won't judge her on that; the internet has done strange things to otherwise intelligent people. I have friends who variously think the earth is flat, that the govt are spraying chemicals on us, that the Jews run the world.

    If you spend too much time seeking confirmation bias and aren't mentally strong enough to listen to and want to understand opposing viewpoints, then the internet is a dangerous place. I fear for what Twitter has done to the political divide. It's indirectly driving people to hate one another, to hate opposition figures and is solidifying people into identity, tribal politics. It won't end well.

    As much as I think Trump is a crass, vulgar liability I have to say that Plato - against the 90% grain of other posters on here - was right about him. Early on she saw a winner and actively (very actively) backed a winning horse in the face of ridicule. I wish Trump hadn't won, but Plato was right about him.

    She is perhaps a ridiculed, reactionary microcosm of the disenfranchised voter. And Trump rallied an uncomfortable amount of Americans who felt just like her.

    Back in the days when Tim claimed to be a gentleman farmer, who did have the foggiest idea about farming.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,992
    Fenster said:

    Plato was relatively normal around eight years back. Pretty funny, liked a scrap with Tim etc. She claimed she was an ex Blairite gone Cameroon but there was always a sense of the reactionary about her.

    We ended up following one another on Twitter and she gradually disappeared down the Alt Right rabbit hole. I won't judge her on that; the internet has done strange things to otherwise intelligent people. I have friends who variously think the earth is flat, that the govt are spraying chemicals on us, that the Jews run the world.

    If you spend too much time seeking confirmation bias and aren't mentally strong enough to listen to and want to understand opposing viewpoints, then the internet is a dangerous place. I fear for what Twitter has done to the political divide. It's indirectly driving people to hate one another, to hate opposition figures and is solidifying people into identity, tribal politics. It won't end well.

    As much as I think Trump is a crass, vulgar liability I have to say that Plato - against the 90% grain of other posters on here - was right about him. Early on she saw a winner and actively (very actively) backed a winning horse in the face of ridicule. I wish Trump hadn't won, but Plato was right about him.

    She is perhaps a ridiculed, reactionary microcosm of the disenfranchised voter. And Trump rallied an uncomfortable amount of Americans who felt just like her.

    Yes good point - she was bang on the money about Trump, and was ridiculed on here for posting the mood of Trump supporters, which she rode well and politely for quite some time. In the end "we" won and she was banned, but as you point out, like @isam and others, they are on the actual winning team.
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    O/T

    Pretty shocking footage from Australia:

    twitter.com/DougalWallace/status/1060781403258777605
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,749
    TOPPING said:

    Fenster said:

    Plato was relatively normal around eight years back. Pretty funny, liked a scrap with Tim etc. She claimed she was an ex Blairite gone Cameroon but there was always a sense of the reactionary about her.

    We ended up following one another on Twitter and she gradually disappeared down the Alt Right rabbit hole. I won't judge her on that; the internet has done strange things to otherwise intelligent people. I have friends who variously think the earth is flat, that the govt are spraying chemicals on us, that the Jews run the world.

    If you spend too much time seeking confirmation bias and aren't mentally strong enough to listen to and want to understand opposing viewpoints, then the internet is a dangerous place. I fear for what Twitter has done to the political divide. It's indirectly driving people to hate one another, to hate opposition figures and is solidifying people into identity, tribal politics. It won't end well.

    As much as I think Trump is a crass, vulgar liability I have to say that Plato - against the 90% grain of other posters on here - was right about him. Early on she saw a winner and actively (very actively) backed a winning horse in the face of ridicule. I wish Trump hadn't won, but Plato was right about him.

    She is perhaps a ridiculed, reactionary microcosm of the disenfranchised voter. And Trump rallied an uncomfortable amount of Americans who felt just like her.

    Yes good point - she was bang on the money about Trump, and was ridiculed on here for posting the mood of Trump supporters, which she rode well and politely for quite some time. In the end "we" won and she was banned, but as you point out, like @isam and others, they are on the actual winning team.
    While Plato actively puffed Trump, I dont think she actually predicted a win. Reading back the eve of poll threads here on both Trump and Brexit as well as GE 2017 is a good lesson in learning to predict better. We all nedd to consider why we got things wrong.

    isam seems fine btw. I had an email from him not long ago on a non political matter.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,992
    AndyJS said:

    O/T

    Pretty shocking footage from Australia:

    twitter.com/DougalWallace/status/1060781403258777605

    Members of the public tackling an attacker, police also, armed back up on the scene pretty quickly. Attacker goes down.

    Reassuring if you ask me.

    (Are Oz normal police armed btw?)
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,301
    Fenster said:

    Plato was relatively normal around eight years back. Pretty funny, liked a scrap with Tim etc. She claimed she was an ex Blairite gone Cameroon but there was always a sense of the reactionary about her.

    We ended up following one another on Twitter and she gradually disappeared down the Alt Right rabbit hole. I won't judge her on that; the internet has done strange things to otherwise intelligent people. I have friends who variously think the earth is flat, that the govt are spraying chemicals on us, that the Jews run the world.

    If you spend too much time seeking confirmation bias and aren't mentally strong enough to listen to and want to understand opposing viewpoints, then the internet is a dangerous place. I fear for what Twitter has done to the political divide. It's indirectly driving people to hate one another, to hate opposition figures and is solidifying people into identity, tribal politics. It won't end well.

    As much as I think Trump is a crass, vulgar liability I have to say that Plato - against the 90% grain of other posters on here - was right about him. Early on she saw a winner and actively (very actively) backed a winning horse in the face of ridicule. I wish Trump hadn't won, but Plato was right about him.

    She is perhaps a ridiculed, reactionary microcosm of the disenfranchised voter. And Trump rallied an uncomfortable amount of Americans who felt just like her.

    That sounds fair from my recollection.
    I'd add that it's easy to assume the targets of out ad hominems, thrown in the heat of political discussion, chuck them off as easily as we do ourselves. That isn't always the case.
  • not_on_firenot_on_fire Posts: 4,449
    Yes, Plato wasn’t interested in forecasting whether Trump would win or not and didn’t offer any insight. She just spammed PB with link to alt-right conspiracy theories, and then just blocked or ignored anyone who pointed out they were BS.

  • The UK economy grew by 0.6% in the three months to September, with warm weather boosting consumer spending, the Office for National Statistics said.
  • Paging Brenda from Bristol....

    The DUP has accused the PM of breaking promises over plans to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland post-Brexit.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46147628

  • Yes, Plato wasn’t interested in forecasting whether Trump would win or not and didn’t offer any insight. She just spammed PB with link to alt-right conspiracy theories, and then just blocked or ignored anyone who pointed out they were BS.

    Have to agree. She had this browser widget that made posts from chosen posters invisible to her - say something she didn't approve of and she just removed you from her world. A very strange way to carry on.
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    TOPPING said:

    AndyJS said:

    O/T

    Pretty shocking footage from Australia:

    twitter.com/DougalWallace/status/1060781403258777605

    Members of the public tackling an attacker, police also, armed back up on the scene pretty quickly. Attacker goes down.

    Reassuring if you ask me.

    (Are Oz normal police armed btw?)
    I don't know.
  • OllyTOllyT Posts: 5,006

    AndyJS said:

    Alistair said:

    Rick Scott tryi gnto get the vote counting stopped as he is losing ground as all votes are counted. Banana fucking republic

    https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1060718085596950528?s=19

    How does the "bad night for the Dems" narrative change if the take Fl, GA, and AZ plus near 40 gains in the house?

    Not counting all the votes on the night is my idea of a banana republic. A speedy result is important for democracy IMO.
    Well anything other than a repeat of Bush v Gore is a banana republic then, because the delay in Florida is because of the changes instigated there to avoid a repeat.

    Secrecy and failure to release vote counts is the mark of a banana republic. Given that the US releases tallies of votes literally as they are counted, faster than any other country I am aware of, your comparison is bizarre.
    The American system is descending into farce because there is far too much partisan political involvement in the whole process. We even see candidates holding the responsibility for actually running the election they are in. The gerrymandering and voter suppression would be seen as totally unacceptable in the K and elsewhere.

    In addition you have anachronisms that will never be changed and build a permanent bias into the system.. The 2 senators per state regardless of size gives small rural conservative states disproportionate power. That bias carries on into the electoral college as each state gets 2 EC votes for its senator. The presidency is then determined by EC votes rather than popular votes giving us 2 GOP presidents of late that both lost the popular vote.

    I understand why the EC and the Senate allocation was settled upon 200 years ago but if a country can't adapt to changing circumstances (and it won't because the current system benefits the GOP's too much) then the electoral system will lose it's credibilty. We are not quite there yet but it will accelerate with Trump at the wheel.
  • MortimerMortimer Posts: 14,127

    The UK economy grew by 0.6% in the three months to September, with warm weather boosting consumer spending, the Office for National Statistics said.

    We must be in the longest period of uninterrupted growth for a while. What is the record?
  • Yes, Plato wasn’t interested in forecasting whether Trump would win or not and didn’t offer any insight. She just spammed PB with link to alt-right conspiracy theories, and then just blocked or ignored anyone who pointed out they were BS.

    Have to agree. She had this browser widget that made posts from chosen posters invisible to her - say something she didn't approve of and she just removed you from her world. A very strange way to carry on.
    To be fair, that widget was made by a PBer and given the reaction when it stopped working, it was quite widely used.
  • currystarcurrystar Posts: 1,171

    The UK economy grew by 0.6% in the three months to September, with warm weather boosting consumer spending, the Office for National Statistics said.

    This despite the most incompetent government in history being in charge apparently, where is Scott P with all his posts about this good news???
  • Cyclefree said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    The 5 best bands of the 80s were (in order): The Smiths, The Fall, Sonic Youth, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Public Enemy. All other responses are wrong.

    Any Best Bands of the 80s list that doesn't include either New Order or The Pogues suggests you spent that decade buzzing the tower, Mav.....

    May I also throw in The Jam and The Clash. Thnx.

    And the Buzzcocks.
    Pretty good argument for them being 70s bands, or at least most of their best material being from the 70s.
  • MortimerMortimer Posts: 14,127
    currystar said:

    The UK economy grew by 0.6% in the three months to September, with warm weather boosting consumer spending, the Office for National Statistics said.

    This despite the most incompetent government in history being in charge apparently, where is Scott P with all his posts about this good news???
    A left of centre mate the other day joked that Brexit was a right wing plot to distract the govt and thus prevent ever increasing interference in everyday life. Had to laugh!

  • glwglw Posts: 9,916
    Mortimer said:

    currystar said:

    The UK economy grew by 0.6% in the three months to September, with warm weather boosting consumer spending, the Office for National Statistics said.

    This despite the most incompetent government in history being in charge apparently, where is Scott P with all his posts about this good news???
    A left of centre mate the other day joked that Brexit was a right wing plot to distract the govt and thus prevent ever increasing interference in everyday life. Had to laugh!

    It seems to be working!
  • Fenster said:

    Plato was relatively normal around eight years back. Pretty funny, liked a scrap with Tim etc. She claimed she was an ex Blairite gone Cameroon but there was always a sense of the reactionary about her.

    We ended up following one another on Twitter and she gradually disappeared down the Alt Right rabbit hole. I won't judge her on that; the internet has done strange things to otherwise intelligent people. I have friends who variously think the earth is flat, that the govt are spraying chemicals on us, that the Jews run the world.

    If you spend too much time seeking confirmation bias and aren't mentally strong enough to listen to and want to understand opposing viewpoints, then the internet is a dangerous place. I fear for what Twitter has done to the political divide. It's indirectly driving people to hate one another, to hate opposition figures and is solidifying people into identity, tribal politics. It won't end well.

    As much as I think Trump is a crass, vulgar liability I have to say that Plato - against the 90% grain of other posters on here - was right about him. Early on she saw a winner and actively (very actively) backed a winning horse in the face of ridicule. I wish Trump hadn't won, but Plato was right about him.

    She is perhaps a ridiculed, reactionary microcosm of the disenfranchised voter. And Trump rallied an uncomfortable amount of Americans who felt just like her.

    The point has been made several times, but despite being very much for Trump, didn't Plato think Clinton would win (the dark forces of elitist liberal meeja shutting down the satanic pizza parlour story etc)?
  • welshowlwelshowl Posts: 4,464
    So the news on the economy wasn’t all Dyer? Or was it?😉
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Fenster said:


    As much as I think Trump is a crass, vulgar liability I have to say that Plato - against the 90% grain of other posters on here - was right about him. Early on she saw a winner and actively (very actively) backed a winning horse in the face of ridicule. I wish Trump hadn't won, but Plato was right about him.

    Plato didn't have the guts to actually say she thought Trump would win though. She equivocated and fence sat and dissembled to an epic level when pushed on the question.

    She did definitely think Clinton was a baby eating Satanist though.
  • anothernickanothernick Posts: 3,591
    edited November 2018
    Foxy said:

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    Ah, tbh I did occasionally wonder if Plato were two people sharing an account, since her backstory and age sometimes appeared to vary; not that these things matter very much on the interwebs. Didn't someone say Plato had been sighted on gab following a twitter purge of Russian trolls?
    More likely to just vary her back story, as indeed do a number of online personas, inc yours truly. There were fairly consistent elements to her posting style though.

    I hope that she has merely given up the internet. While it can be good company for the infirm and socially isolated she really seemed to have been sucked into some very dark places.

    The internet is a social phenemenon like atomic fission, once invented it will not go away. It will take some time for humans to evolve mechanisms to cope with it. There is quite good evidence that the internet and smartphones have adverse effects on mental health.

    Yes I can see how reactions to internet posts could have a negative effect, using the internet is actually a solitary pursuit - "social" media is very different from socialising with people who are physically present and often interner posts are written in hyperbolic and violent langusuage which people would not use in real life conversations with those that they didn't know.

    In the past the kind of angry and abusive language that is common on twitter would have been restricted to private conversations with a few like minded people in the pub and nobody would have taken any of it very seriously. Now it is visible to millions of people a nanosecond after it has been posted and people atoke up the outrage rather than doing what they should do, which is to ignore it.
  • Yes, Plato wasn’t interested in forecasting whether Trump would win or not and didn’t offer any insight. She just spammed PB with link to alt-right conspiracy theories, and then just blocked or ignored anyone who pointed out they were BS.

    Have to agree. She had this browser widget that made posts from chosen posters invisible to her - say something she didn't approve of and she just removed you from her world. A very strange way to carry on.
    The funniest thing about edmundintokyo's widget was that those who used it were always going on about which posters they'd cast into outer darkness. Odd.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670

    Yes, Plato wasn’t interested in forecasting whether Trump would win or not and didn’t offer any insight. She just spammed PB with link to alt-right conspiracy theories, and then just blocked or ignored anyone who pointed out they were BS.

    My favourite one being the "shocking" email that proved Clintons held incredibly racist views despite the fact the e-mail was sent by a spam e-mail account in the Netherlands.

    I think I got blocked when I pointed that out for the third time.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,301
    Sounds as though this is the crux of the Florida count argument:
    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/florida-senate-election-missing-votes-broward-county-bill-nelson-rick-scott.html

    Voting machines, again...
    The discrepancy with the Senate race tally is consistent down the ballot, with more votes cast in lower-profile races like commissioner of agriculture, chief financial officer, and attorney general than in the Senate race, according to the preliminary county results. As of Thursday afternoon, a total of 675,216 votes had been counted in the Senate race in Broward (466,321 for Nelson and 208,895 for Scott). By comparison, the gubernatorial race had 701,080 cast in Broward, and even the commissioner of agriculture race had 685,440 total votes while the chief financial officer race had 685,017 votes.

    Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias told the Sun Sentinel that he thinks the undervotes were due to voting machines not detecting genuine votes. “I am pretty confident what you are going to see are markings that were not picked up by the machines or a calibration issue that was not registering that part of the ballot,” he said....
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    Foxy said:

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    Ah, tbh I did occasionally wonder if Plato were two people sharing an account, since her backstory and age sometimes appeared to vary; not that these things matter very much on the interwebs. Didn't someone say Plato had been sighted on gab following a twitter purge of Russian trolls?
    More likely to just vary her back story, as indeed do a number of online personas, inc yours truly. There were fairly consistent elements to her posting style though.

    I hope that she has merely given up the internet. While it can be good company for the infirm and socially isolated she really seemed to have been sucked into some very dark places.

    The internet is a social phenemenon like atomic fission, once invented it will not go away. It will take some time for humans to evolve mechanisms to cope with it. There is quite good evidence that the internet and smartphones have adverse effects on mental health.

    It won't go away but hopefully people will learn to use it more sparingly in the future instead of spending all day glued to screens.
  • AnorakAnorak Posts: 6,621
    This is a very sweet and thought-provoking ad. Banned for being too political. Daft.
    https://twitter.com/IcelandFoods/status/1060774234266484737
  • BromBrom Posts: 3,760
    currystar said:

    The UK economy grew by 0.6% in the three months to September, with warm weather boosting consumer spending, the Office for National Statistics said.

    This despite the most incompetent government in history being in charge apparently, where is Scott P with all his posts about this good news???
    I'm sure he can find a negative take from James O'Brien to retweet
  • Police said the Melbourne attack is being investigated by counterterrorism officials and the attacker was known to authorities.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/09/melbourne-incident-major-police-operation-car-bursts-flames/
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,154
    edited November 2018
    Anorak said:

    This is a very sweet and thought-provoking ad. Banned for being too political. Daft.
    twitter.com/IcelandFoods/status/1060774234266484737

    Wouldn't be surprised if banning won't have the old Streisand effect. I watched it and wouldn't have seen it otherwise.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,728
    Alistair said:

    Yes, Plato wasn’t interested in forecasting whether Trump would win or not and didn’t offer any insight. She just spammed PB with link to alt-right conspiracy theories, and then just blocked or ignored anyone who pointed out they were BS.

    My favourite one being the "shocking" email that proved Clintons held incredibly racist views despite the fact the e-mail was sent by a spam e-mail account in the Netherlands.

    I think I got blocked when I pointed that out for the third time.
    Or how Clinton had sold America's plutonium stocks to the Russians ...
  • Mr. Anorak, saw that earlier today. Surprised it's been banned.

    Perhaps I shouldn't be.
  • Der Spiegel claims Mancini signed two contracts on the same day, one for City and the other as a £1.75million adviser to the Al Jazira Sports and Cultural Club in Abu Dhabi, paid into an offshore shell company in Mauritius called Sparkleglow Holdings. T

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/11/08/manchester-city-secretly-paid-roberto-mancini175m-offshore-account/
  • not_on_firenot_on_fire Posts: 4,449
    edited November 2018

    Yes, Plato wasn’t interested in forecasting whether Trump would win or not and didn’t offer any insight. She just spammed PB with link to alt-right conspiracy theories, and then just blocked or ignored anyone who pointed out they were BS.

    Have to agree. She had this browser widget that made posts from chosen posters invisible to her - say something she didn't approve of and she just removed you from her world. A very strange way to carry on.
    The funniest thing about edmundintokyo's widget was that those who used it were always going on about which posters they'd cast into outer darkness. Odd.
    The same posters then mocked left-wing groups for no-platforming.
  • AndrewAndrew Posts: 2,900
    Alistair said:


    My favourite one being the "shocking" email that proved Clintons held incredibly racist views despite the fact the e-mail was sent by a spam e-mail account in the Netherlands.

    I think I got blocked when I pointed that out for the third time.

    Bizarre psychological hold it takes over some - as someone else said, rather like a cult (but a decentralized cult?). Rather more common in the US than here.
  • Paging Brenda from Bristol....

    The DUP has accused the PM of breaking promises over plans to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland post-Brexit.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46147628

    This is an odd story, not least the headline (repeated in the article), in that the DUPs main objection is to a border between NI/GB, not NI/RoI (though they object to that too). The devil will be in the detail but given - for example - the integration of the energy market on the island of Ireland, it certainly seems to me to be sensible to aim for specific agreements for NI to continue operating with RoI as at present, where the markets between Ireland and Britain are already broadly distinct.

    In any event, the competing objectives continue to cross at least one red line of at least one group with an effective veto, so I don't see how a deal can be done on the basis being suggested. Further, if Downing St is so confident that such an arrangement will never be needed in practice (which is woefully naive), then they should ask themselves why the EU is so keen to include it.

    I don't know whether the story is being misreported or whether the DUP (or No 10) are trying to pressure other players into moving position or expectations on the basis of half-revelations. Whatever, has anything actually changed? It doesn't look like it to me.
  • rural_voterrural_voter Posts: 2,038
    TOPPING said:

    AndyJS said:

    O/T

    Pretty shocking footage from Australia:

    twitter.com/DougalWallace/status/1060781403258777605

    Members of the public tackling an attacker, police also, armed back up on the scene pretty quickly. Attacker goes down.

    Reassuring if you ask me.

    (Are Oz normal police armed btw?)
    I fear they are. It's 'normal' around the world. The Washington Post is amazed that five countries still have police officers who are unarmed for their normal duties

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/02/18/5-countries-where-police-officers-do-not-carry-firearms-and-it-works-well/?utm_term=.e89ab7aee6db
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,293

    The UK economy grew by 0.6% in the three months to September, with warm weather boosting consumer spending, the Office for National Statistics said.

    Despite Brexit?
  • AnorakAnorak Posts: 6,621
    Plato: the most likely thing, IMHO, is that she's found herself a fella an returned to the real world. Hope so, anyway.
  • Der Spiegel claims Mancini signed two contracts on the same day, one for City and the other as a £1.75million adviser to the Al Jazira Sports and Cultural Club in Abu Dhabi, paid into an offshore shell company in Mauritius called Sparkleglow Holdings. T

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/11/08/manchester-city-secretly-paid-roberto-mancini175m-offshore-account/

    "Disguised remuneration" is likely to be a phrase we hear more often in football...
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,293
    Who remembers when Plato was POTY?

    Was that the nadir of PB? :D
  • Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,821
    edited November 2018
    Sporting Index have settled some of their turnout and vote share markets.

    On turnout, TX settled at 46.2, so my sell at 47 was slightly in profit, but Mike did better!
    TN settled at 44.7 (I sold at 48). Still waiting for some of the others - I expect a few of them will be long waits.
  • Mortimer said:

    The UK economy grew by 0.6% in the three months to September, with warm weather boosting consumer spending, the Office for National Statistics said.

    We must be in the longest period of uninterrupted growth for a while. What is the record?
    The Brown boom holds the record, I think, going on some 15 years from about 1993-2008.
  • Mr. Andrew, just like a Corbyn and the cult that follows him.
  • GIN1138 said:

    Who remembers when Plato was POTY?

    Was that the nadir of PB? :D

    I think it speaks more to Plato's own descent into darkness
  • Seems Mr Stabby in Australia follows the same pattern of many of these people.

    Moved to Australia from Somali, criminal record for minor offences, known to the authorities over links to terror plots and extremist links.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6370669/Car-smashes-Melbournes-Bourke-Street-Mall-bursts-flames.html
  • Paging Brenda from Bristol....

    The DUP has accused the PM of breaking promises over plans to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland post-Brexit.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46147628

    This is an odd story, not least the headline (repeated in the article), in that the DUPs main objection is to a border between NI/GB, not NI/RoI (though they object to that too). The devil will be in the detail but given - for example - the integration of the energy market on the island of Ireland, it certainly seems to me to be sensible to aim for specific agreements for NI to continue operating with RoI as at present, where the markets between Ireland and Britain are already broadly distinct.

    In any event, the competing objectives continue to cross at least one red line of at least one group with an effective veto, so I don't see how a deal can be done on the basis being suggested. Further, if Downing St is so confident that such an arrangement will never be needed in practice (which is woefully naive), then they should ask themselves why the EU is so keen to include it.

    I don't know whether the story is being misreported or whether the DUP (or No 10) are trying to pressure other players into moving position or expectations on the basis of half-revelations. Whatever, has anything actually changed? It doesn't look like it to me.
    I think it's shows the DUP dilemma pretty neatly.

    Placing the end of the UK-CU in the hands of the PM means they are exposed should Corbyn come to power.

    But voting it down means Corbyn is much more likely to come to power.
  • AnorakAnorak Posts: 6,621

    Anorak said:

    This is a very sweet and thought-provoking ad. Banned for being too political. Daft.
    twitter.com/IcelandFoods/status/1060774234266484737

    Wouldn't be surprised if banning won't have the old Streisand effect. I watched it and wouldn't have seen it otherwise.
    It was meant to be a national prime-time TV campaign. I doubt the reach of viral video will exceed that.
  • FensterFenster Posts: 2,115

    Fenster said:

    Plato was relatively normal around eight years back. Pretty funny, liked a scrap with Tim etc. She claimed she was an ex Blairite gone Cameroon but there was always a sense of the reactionary about her.

    We ended up following one another on Twitter and she gradually disappeared down the Alt Right rabbit hole. I won't judge her on that; the internet has done strange things to otherwise intelligent people. I have friends who variously think the earth is flat, that the govt are spraying chemicals on us, that the Jews run the world.

    If you spend too much time seeking confirmation bias and aren't mentally strong enough to listen to and want to understand opposing viewpoints, then the internet is a dangerous place. I fear for what Twitter has done to the political divide. It's indirectly driving people to hate one another, to hate opposition figures and is solidifying people into identity, tribal politics. It won't end well.

    As much as I think Trump is a crass, vulgar liability I have to say that Plato - against the 90% grain of other posters on here - was right about him. Early on she saw a winner and actively (very actively) backed a winning horse in the face of ridicule. I wish Trump hadn't won, but Plato was right about him.

    She is perhaps a ridiculed, reactionary microcosm of the disenfranchised voter. And Trump rallied an uncomfortable amount of Americans who felt just like her.

    The point has been made several times, but despite being very much for Trump, didn't Plato think Clinton would win (the dark forces of elitist liberal meeja shutting down the satanic pizza parlour story etc)?
    Yeah, sorry - perhaps I didn't word it well. What I meant was that she was on to something quote early on with Trump, whereas I just thought he was a fecking idiot who no voter should touch with a barge pole.

    Other posters are right too. It was her Trump dalliance and growing disdain for the mainstream media that really accelerated her journey into darkness.

    She's in the bonkers crowd with me now, throwing half-eaten pieces of fried chicken at Guido's website for being too liberal, sat only in my week-old boxer shorts :)
  • FensterFenster Posts: 2,115
    Fenster said:

    Fenster said:

    Plato was relatively normal around eight years back. Pretty funny, liked a scrap with Tim etc. She claimed she was an ex Blairite gone Cameroon but there was always a sense of the reactionary about her.

    We ended up following one another on Twitter and she gradually disappeared down the Alt Right rabbit hole. I won't judge her on that; the internet has done strange things to otherwise intelligent people. I have friends who variously think the earth is flat, that the govt are spraying chemicals on us, that the Jews run the world.

    If you spend too much time seeking confirmation bias and aren't mentally strong enough to listen to and want to understand opposing viewpoints, then the internet is a dangerous place. I fear for what Twitter has done to the political divide. It's indirectly driving people to hate one another, to hate opposition figures and is solidifying people into identity, tribal politics. It won't end well.

    As much as I think Trump is a crass, vulgar liability I have to say that Plato - against the 90% grain of other posters on here - was right about him. Early on she saw a winner and actively (very actively) backed a winning horse in the face of ridicule. I wish Trump hadn't won, but Plato was right about him.

    She is perhaps a ridiculed, reactionary microcosm of the disenfranchised voter. And Trump rallied an uncomfortable amount of Americans who felt just like her.

    The point has been made several times, but despite being very much for Trump, didn't Plato think Clinton would win (the dark forces of elitist liberal meeja shutting down the satanic pizza parlour story etc)?
    Yeah, sorry - perhaps I didn't word it well. What I meant was that she was on to something quote early on with Trump, whereas I just thought he was a fecking idiot who no voter should touch with a barge pole.

    Other posters are right too. It was her Trump dalliance and growing disdain for the mainstream media that really accelerated her journey into darkness.

    She's in the bonkers crowd with me now, throwing half-eaten pieces of fried chicken at Guido's website for being too liberal, dressed only in my week-old boxer shorts :)
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,154
    edited November 2018

    Mr. Andrew, just like a Corbyn and the cult that follows him.

    I was thinking about this and there are lots of similarities in both sets of supporters that they won't hear a bad word against their man.

    However, Trump continuously just comes out with total and utter provable lies and changes tack all over the place. I just don't know how people square that circle of what he says and does.

    Corbyn, well nowhere near as honest as the cult like to make out of their saintly Granddad, is a man of a particular set of views that haven't changed for 40 years. And it isn't like Socialism hasn't had a significant following in this country for a long time. He is at least consistent on that front and so I can see how it is that people can join that movement and follow it.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,362

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    You *thought* you met her...
    Perhaps the cheques from Moscow have stopped.
    She was a real right wing Tory, pleasant in conversations and dealings I had with her outside the forum.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,015
    edited November 2018
    Anorak said:

    Plato: the most likely thing, IMHO, is that she's found herself a fella an returned to the real world. Hope so, anyway.

    Ha, that's just reminded me one of her buds on here, Financier, some old cove who claimed to have created a system for gaming the roulette tables and that he'd been honey trapped by the KGB (though he saw through their dastardly wiles of course). Hope for her sake it isn't him.
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,293
    Earth's over-population problem starting to sort itself out?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46118103
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    GIN1138 said:

    Earth's over-population problem starting to sort itself out?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46118103

    Why remarkable? These trends have been known for ages.
  • OllyT said:



    Well anything other than a repeat of Bush v Gore is a banana republic then, because the delay in Florida is because of the changes instigated there to avoid a repeat.

    Secrecy and failure to release vote counts is the mark of a banana republic. Given that the US releases tallies of votes literally as they are counted, faster than any other country I am aware of, your comparison is bizarre.

    The American system is descending into farce because there is far too much partisan political involvement in the whole process. We even see candidates holding the responsibility for actually running the election they are in. The gerrymandering and voter suppression would be seen as totally unacceptable in the K and elsewhere.

    In addition you have anachronisms that will never be changed and build a permanent bias into the system.. The 2 senators per state regardless of size gives small rural conservative states disproportionate power. That bias carries on into the electoral college as each state gets 2 EC votes for its senator. The presidency is then determined by EC votes rather than popular votes giving us 2 GOP presidents of late that both lost the popular vote.

    I understand why the EC and the Senate allocation was settled upon 200 years ago but if a country can't adapt to changing circumstances (and it won't because the current system benefits the GOP's too much) then the electoral system will lose it's credibilty. We are not quite there yet but it will accelerate with Trump at the wheel.
    I disagree with a lot of that. Yes, there is a small-state bias but Democrats win small states too. be careful about the overall Dem vs Rep figures for the senate for 2018 because of the effect of California having two Democrats and no Republicans on the ballot due to the combined primary system run there.

    While it's true that winning the popular vote doesn't necessarily translate to winning the presidency (though it usually does), that's as much down to campaigning strategy as systemic bias. It probably would be better for the US to run the election purely on the popular vote, though that could just introduce a focus on demographic swing votes rather than geographic ones, but all candidates know the system beforehand. No-one forced Hillary to skip Wisconsin in October.

    The crucial question though is do voters see the system as illegitimate? if not, then there's not really a problem. Sure, it has its anachronisms but I wouldn't list those two as being anything like the worst (voter access to the ballot, and district Gerrymandering, would take those prizes). It's not like Britain, with its organic and uncodified constitution, House of Lords and government near-control of parliament isn't without its oddities that would peeve a constitutional logical democratic purist. Thing is, it more-or-less works, and that should be the deciding factor.
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,293
    malcolmg said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    You *thought* you met her...
    Perhaps the cheques from Moscow have stopped.
    She was a real right wing Tory, pleasant in conversations and dealings I had with her outside the forum.
    Morning Malc! :D

    And what might these "dealings" be that you had with Ms. Plato outside of PB? Anything you'd like to confess?

    Not sure she was a Tory as such. She claimed to be a "floater"
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    Oil prices on the way down again. WTI below $60.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/energy
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,220
    AndyJS said:
    Not on r4 long wave seemingly - most disappointing ! Missed it a bit on my commute.
  • GIN1138 said:

    malcolmg said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    Good morning, everyone.

    Miss Plato's Twitter has been inactive since about June. I have tried e-mailing her, but had no reply. Hoping she's alright, but did seem to drop off the radar pretty rapidly.

    Morris Plato was probably a 17-yr old's media studies project and now that they are at Uni studying mechanical engineering they have forgotten all about it.
    I have met her it was about 12 yrs ago. She isn't 17.. and wasn't then either!.
    You *thought* you met her...
    Perhaps the cheques from Moscow have stopped.
    She was a real right wing Tory, pleasant in conversations and dealings I had with her outside the forum.
    Morning Malc! :D

    And what might these "dealings" be that you had with Ms. Plato outside of PB? Anything you'd like to confess?

    Not sure she was a Tory as such. She claimed to be a "floater"
    Plato was a card-carrying member of the Conservative Party, whether she'd floated there or not.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,154
    edited November 2018
    Pulpstar said:

    AndyJS said:
    Not on r4 long wave seemingly - most disappointing ! Missed it a bit on my commute.
    Talk Sport bought the rights for all overseas test matches until I think 2020....but BBC still have the home matches. Wasn't ECB decision, was the respective foreign cricket boards.
  • FensterFenster Posts: 2,115
    GIN1138 said:

    Earth's over-population problem starting to sort itself out?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46118103

    I'm 41 now so I've stopped going on so many overseas rugby tours. It's bound to have had an effect :)
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    Pulpstar said:

    AndyJS said:
    Not on r4 long wave seemingly - most disappointing ! Missed it a bit on my commute.
    Disappointing that TMS lost the contract.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,628
    Fenster said:

    Fenster said:

    Plato was relatively normal around eight years back. Pretty funny, liked a scrap with Tim etc. She claimed she was an ex Blairite gone Cameroon but there was always a sense of the reactionary about her.

    We ended up following one another on Twitter and she gradually disappeared down the Alt Right rabbit hole. I won't judge her on that; the internet has done strange things to otherwise intelligent people. I have friends who variously think the earth is flat, that the govt are spraying chemicals on us, that the Jews run the world.

    If you spend too much time seeking confirmation bias and aren't mentally strong enough to listen to and want to understand opposing viewpoints, then the internet is a dangerous place. I fear for what Twitter has done to the political divide. It's indirectly driving people to hate one another, to hate opposition figures and is solidifying people into identity, tribal politics. It won't end well.

    As much as I think Trump is a crass, vulgar liability I have to say that Plato - against the 90% grain of other posters on here - was right about him. Early on she saw a winner and actively (very actively) backed a winning horse in the face of ridicule. I wish Trump hadn't won, but Plato was right about him.

    She is perhaps a ridiculed, reactionary microcosm of the disenfranchised voter. And Trump rallied an uncomfortable amount of Americans who felt just like her.

    The point has been made several times, but despite being very much for Trump, didn't Plato think Clinton would win (the dark forces of elitist liberal meeja shutting down the satanic pizza parlour story etc)?
    Yeah, sorry - perhaps I didn't word it well. What I meant was that she was on to something quote early on with Trump, whereas I just thought he was a fecking idiot who no voter should touch with a barge pole.

    Other posters are right too. It was her Trump dalliance and growing disdain for the mainstream media that really accelerated her journey into darkness.

    She's in the bonkers crowd with me now, throwing half-eaten pieces of fried chicken at Guido's website for being too liberal, sat only in my week-old boxer shorts :)
    I guess we shouldn't ask why she is sat in your week-old boxer shorts?
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,220

    Pulpstar said:

    AndyJS said:
    Not on r4 long wave seemingly - most disappointing ! Missed it a bit on my commute.
    Talk Sport bought the rights for all overseas test matches until I think 2020....but BBC still have the home matches. Wasn't ECB decision, was the respective foreign cricket boards.
    Oh, I didn't realise it was on Talksport.
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    Fenster said:

    GIN1138 said:

    Earth's over-population problem starting to sort itself out?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46118103

    I'm 41 now so I've stopped going on so many overseas rugby tours. It's bound to have had an effect :)
    I would have liked to follow the England cricket team on overseas tours but haven't got round to it so far.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,176
    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    AndyJS said:
    Not on r4 long wave seemingly - most disappointing ! Missed it a bit on my commute.
    Talk Sport bought the rights for all overseas test matches until I think 2020....but BBC still have the home matches. Wasn't ECB decision, was the respective foreign cricket boards.
    Oh, I didn't realise it was on Talksport.
    TalkSPORT 2, I think.
  • Fenster said:

    GIN1138 said:

    Earth's over-population problem starting to sort itself out?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46118103

    I'm 41 now so I've stopped going on so many overseas rugby tours. It's bound to have had an effect :)
    I went on the 2001 Lions tour.

    I think I was the only one who didn't drink.
This discussion has been closed.