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The Biden era begins with his predecessor boycotting the ceremonies – politicalbetting.com

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  • pingping Posts: 3,805

    Profuse apologies for the "have the shot him yet" comments earlier. Mega stress and missed anti-depressant doses makes for daft RP.

    Better now.

    Kudos
  • Washington election director forced into hiding over potential threats of retaliation, violence
    https://mynorthwest.com/2474217/washington-election-results-retaliation-kim-wyman/

    Check out the audio link to interview of WA Secretary of State Kim Wyman, the only Republican statewide official who was just re-elected.

    “My state election director is in an undisclosed location with her family because they’re worried about their physical and personal safety,” Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman told KIRO Radio’s Gee and Ursula Show. “It’s a scary time, and people are emotional, they’re illogical, and they’re not rational.”

    “The scary thing is that it’s just got to take one person that you motivate that says, ‘Yeah, we gotta go out and kill election officials,'” she added.

    Wyman herself has taken precautions as well, having even gotten rid of two personalized license plates that made her vehicle too easy to identify. All told, the situation has made for difficult — and often emotional — times for election officials across the country.

    “It’s frustrating because I go between fear and anger — I get mad because I don’t want to be afraid,” Wyman said."

    Much of that has been driven by rhetoric from the White House leading into the 2020 election, which saw President Trump repeatedly and emphatically insist that the results were fraudulent.

    Washington state saw a similar narrative play out with former gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp filing a lawsuit over the results, despite losing by over 545,000 votes. He eventually withdrew that lawsuit, but between that and Trump’s own rhetoric, the damage had already been done.

    “When you have a President of the United States for six months leading into the election over and over and over … saying, ‘the only explanation for my loss is a rigged election,’ people started to believe it,” Wyman described. “And it’s dangerous — it’s dangerous because it undermines our democratic institutions.”

    In the months and years to come, Wyman believes the state and country may very well have a long road ahead to restore trust in our election systems, especially as misinformation continues to spread across social media. Despite that, though, she remains hopeful for the future.

    “I think the most important thing we can do is first and foremost refute the lies and the misinformation and disinformation that’s been shared,” Wyman proposed. “We’ve got to build it back brick by brick.”

    Addendum - Personally know Secretary Wyman, have for years. Am critical of many of her actions as our state's chief elections officer; indeed I've helped campaign against her, including in 2020.

    Am also totally convinced of Kim Whyman's absolute integrity, professionalism and dedication to free and fair elections.

  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,360
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Saga Cruises will require full vaccination a minimum of 14 days before departure - suspect others may follow as vaccine extends below 50:

    https://travel.saga.co.uk/travel-updates/cruise-coronavirus-vaccine.aspx

    How will you be able to prove it? Are we getting certificates now?
    How will you check that I have received the vaccine?
    You will be required to bring the vaccination document and/or evidence with you as proof at the time of boarding.

    What if I am exempt from receiving the vaccine?
    Sadly we would not be able to allow you to cruise and would ask that you contact our Cruise Guest Services who will be able to discuss your options with you and arrange a full refund.

    Will I still be able to travel if I choose not to have the vaccine?
    We have made the decision not to allow a guest to travel with us if they choose not to receive the vaccine. The majority of our guests fall into the at-risk age bracket and our priority is their safety and wellbeing.
    Wouldn’t it have been much easier if they gave us certificates at the time of vaccination? Or stamped passports for those who have them?
    The government are just too slow on all of this. It's very obvious that international travel is going to require vaccine certificates from later this year, get a system and database in place now rather than later.
    How does the government set up a national vaccination status database without setting up a national identity database that has already been dropped over privacy concerns? Probably by being less rigorous but hopefully some serious thought is going into this. @TheScreamingEagles suggested earlier it might be tied to NHS numbers.
    NI number or NHS numbers.
    It'll be NHS numbers, I think. There are a number of issues with NI numbers, and the NHS numbers will be directly linked with the patient records.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,712
    Somewhere @Casino_Royale is having apoplexy...
  • stodgestodge Posts: 13,893



    I suspect Caldicott Guardians will be having a 'fun' time with this.

    It's a serious issue of privacy and data protection worth considering.

    Do I want other people to know I have been vaccinated or if I haven't? Should it be a pre-requisite for getting back to "normal" life? It is of course up to Saga Cruises who they choose to have on their ships and if they want you to produce proof of vaccination, so be it.

    It may be I'll need similar before I can return to Lingfield or Plumpton - who can say? Leisure aside, how much further can/will/should be go?

  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,360
    On the theme of being positive -

    The outgoing NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine

    http://nasawatch.com/archives/2021/01/exit-interview.html

    When appointed by Trump, it was assumed that he would be the usual foul disaster, like his other appointees.

    In the end, he did better than most thought possible. He reigned in some of the more stupid and egregious wastes of money, produced some actually targets for the eternally slipping SLS project and even vetoed a bonus payment for contractors for the Webb telescope comedy.. Not to mention getting Commercial Crew up and running. And stopping it getting sole sourced to Boeing.....

    Might be worth watching for future political office....
  • stodgestodge Posts: 13,893
    As far as today's events in Washington are concerned:

    I wish President Biden and his administration well and I hope they can bring peace and prosperity not just to the USA but to the whole world.

    I confess I've never "got" Trump - I simply don't understand his appeal, his attraction or why anyone should regard him with almost Messianic fervour. I recognise that if you're desperate enough you'll follow any snake oil salesman who promises you life can be better and maybe it's because I've never had that state of mind I don't get it.

    It may be I don't understand people - I'll cheerfully concede that point. Beyond the promises, I never understood why Trump got the support he did. Any superficial analysis of his utterings would reveal them to be nonsense - well, that's how they seemed to me.
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468

    TimT said:

    Does anyone know why the vaccinations went so brilliantly today? 1/3rd of a million jabs administered it would seem?

    Most likely, weekend effect unwinding

    image
    Thanks for this. Do you have a source for your graph? I'd love to bookmark it and check it each day.
    Here is one source: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations
    Thanks Tim. Not quite as pretty as Malmesbury's but it's still good for a visual learning lass. Thank you :smile:
    NB this: Day of reporting, not day of vaccination, and Scotland and Wales not reporting over weekend, so lumping weekend numbers in with first day(s) of the week. So data will be lumpy during and after weekend.

    "Number of people who have received a vaccination for COVID-19, by day on which the vaccine was reported. Data are reported daily, and include all vaccination events that are entered on the relevant system at the time of extract. This includes reported vaccines that were administered up to and including the date shown. Numbers are only reported for Scotland and Wales on weekdays."
  • gealbhangealbhan Posts: 2,362
    edited January 2021

    You have to laugh, looking back at the insane volumes of pixels wasted by the likes of @MrEd etc on the ways in which Biden wasn’t going to be president. Some of the threads in that fortnight after the election are hugely entertaining to read again.

    Whilst I have no time for his politics his view of what the Republicans would attempt to do, was pretty much spot on. Without that information, mine and others understanding of the situation and what was happening would have been far less complete.

    There was a real threat to democracy here.
    Nope. I’m on record over and again saying that the endless lawsuits and recounts were complete nonsense/noise.

    The only time I thought democracy was under threat was the storming of the Capitol. And I was probably wrong about that.

    MrEd was a whole world of wrong from about 6pm EST on election day through the following fortnight.
    I thought Trump had made a deal with the aliens who arrived in UFOs.
  • President Biden and Vice President Harris just now heading down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

    Seventy-two years ago, back in 1949, my father was part of the US Marine Corp honor guard at the inauguration of President Harry Truman.

    My Daddy Dearest was 19 years old, and thus not old enough to vote in 1948. If he HAD voted, almost certainly he'd have voted for Republican Tom Dewey NOT "Give Em Hell" Harry. Who

    Which didn't matter diddly squat to him on that day. For him, it was a proud day - for himself AND for America.

    A day like today.
  • MrEdMrEd Posts: 5,578

    President Biden and Vice President Harris just now heading down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

    Seventy-two years ago, back in 1949, my father was part of the US Marine Corp honor guard at the inauguration of President Harry Truman.

    My Daddy Dearest was 19 years old, and thus not old enough to vote in 1948. If he HAD voted, almost certainly he'd have voted for Republican Tom Dewey NOT "Give Em Hell" Harry. Who

    Which didn't matter diddly squat to him on that day. For him, it was a proud day - for himself AND for America.

    A day like today.

    Although you and I do not share the same view on Trump - to put it mildly - this is a great story to be able to recite. Kudos to your father.
  • A real American, a genuine (as opposed to Putinist) Republican.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,221
    Scott_xP said:
    No doubt they will charge them to use the bathroom, too.
  • MrEdMrEd Posts: 5,578

    You have to laugh, looking back at the insane volumes of pixels wasted by the likes of @MrEd etc on the ways in which Biden wasn’t going to be president. Some of the threads in that fortnight after the election are hugely entertaining to read again.

    Whilst I have no time for his politics his view of what the Republicans would attempt to do, was pretty much spot on. Without that information, mine and others understanding of the situation and what was happening would have been far less complete.

    There was a real threat to democracy here.
    Thanks @noneoftheabove. As for @Anabobazina, I don't think I ever said that Biden wasn't going to be President, what I was attempting to say what I thought what the Republicans would do to stop it. But, hey, put the posts where I said Biden wouldn't be President. Otherwise I'll just assume it's part of the normal shit you sprout.
  • MrEdMrEd Posts: 5,578
    gealbhan said:

    You have to laugh, looking back at the insane volumes of pixels wasted by the likes of @MrEd etc on the ways in which Biden wasn’t going to be president. Some of the threads in that fortnight after the election are hugely entertaining to read again.

    Whilst I have no time for his politics his view of what the Republicans would attempt to do, was pretty much spot on. Without that information, mine and others understanding of the situation and what was happening would have been far less complete.

    There was a real threat to democracy here.
    Nope. I’m on record over and again saying that the endless lawsuits and recounts were complete nonsense/noise.

    The only time I thought democracy was under threat was the storming of the Capitol. And I was probably wrong about that.

    MrEd was a whole world of wrong from about 6pm EST on election day through the following fortnight.
    I thought Trump had made a deal with the aliens who arrived in UFOs.
    Just ask @Anabobazina. They know everything :)
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,204
  • MrEd said:

    President Biden and Vice President Harris just now heading down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

    Seventy-two years ago, back in 1949, my father was part of the US Marine Corp honor guard at the inauguration of President Harry Truman.

    My Daddy Dearest was 19 years old, and thus not old enough to vote in 1948. If he HAD voted, almost certainly he'd have voted for Republican Tom Dewey NOT "Give Em Hell" Harry. Who

    Which didn't matter diddly squat to him on that day. For him, it was a proud day - for himself AND for America.

    A day like today.

    Although you and I do not share the same view on Trump - to put it mildly - this is a great story to be able to recite. Kudos to your father.
    Often what Daddy Dearest would have made of Donald Trump? He voted for Ross Perot in 1992, but for Bob Dole in 1996 his last election.

    My guess is, he'd have voted for Trumpsky in 2016, but not 2020. Certainly wish he was around to tell me himself!
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,487

    Disturbing. Not as disturbing as his sudden obsession with imps, but still.
    I wouldn't read too much into it.

    There's nothing wrong with having "woken up" to injustices that were previously there, and one didn't see or realise, and then to do something about them. It has reasonable goals in mind.

    The issue is that Woke (big W) has become a quasi-religion where it's first and foremost about putting yourself on display and signalling the purity of your credentials. There's no interest in moderation because it's always good to be seen to be more Woke, more angry, and more energetic about it, and it therefore has a maximalising tendency in defiance of common sense.

    That doesn't inspire action, rather it inhibits it, because practical action would otherwise suggest the world is a complex place. Moreover, its behaviour - seeing everything through increasingly ludicrous levels of intersectionality in absolutely everything, cancel culture, hectoring nuance, pulling down statues, and partial views of any alternative view - repells many people who'd otherwise be very sympathetic.

    It's so divisive because everyone who criticises the latter is assumed to oppose the former, and are often called bigots to boot, which many know full-well is disingenuous, whilst the Woke themselves are being entirely self-indulgent, often patronising and frequently hypocritical.

    So, yes, I hate unfairness and injustice to anyone on account of who they are. And I have contempt for Woke as a religion too as I believe to be divisive counterproductive nonsense for which you get judged when you call out their childish bullshit.

    Some of the worst people I've met in my professional life have been the Wokest because they use it to cloak deep-seated insecurities and give cover for highly disrespectful treatment of people in real life.

    Virtue and integrity comes from within, and real change requires practical action tempered by humility and good judgement.

    The Woke have neither.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,241
    Has anyone done Jury Service during lockdown.

    How did it go?

    (Friend has just been selected - jury will be in a cinema watching via videolink. Not very happy.)
  • MrEdMrEd Posts: 5,578

    Disturbing. Not as disturbing as his sudden obsession with imps, but still.
    I wouldn't read too much into it.

    There's nothing wrong with having "woken up" to injustices that were previously there, and one didn't see or realise, and then to do something about them. It has reasonable goals in mind.

    The issue is that Woke (big W) has become a quasi-religion where it's first and foremost about putting yourself on display and signalling the purity of your credentials. There's no interest in moderation because it's always good to be seen to be more Woke, more angry, and more energetic about it, and it therefore has a maximalising tendency in defiance of common sense.

    That doesn't inspire action, rather it inhibits it, because practical action would otherwise suggest the world is a complex place. Moreover, its behaviour - seeing everything through increasingly ludicrous levels of intersectionality in absolutely everything, cancel culture, hectoring nuance, pulling down statues, and partial views of any alternative view - repells many people who'd otherwise be very sympathetic.

    It's so divisive because everyone who criticises the latter is assumed to oppose the former, and are often called bigots to boot, which many know full-well is disingenuous, whilst the Woke themselves are being entirely self-indulgent, often patronising and frequently hypocritical.

    So, yes, I hate unfairness and injustice to anyone on account of who they are. And I have contempt for Woke as a religion too as I believe to be divisive counterproductive nonsense for which you get judged when you call out their childish bullshit.

    Some of the worst people I've met in my professional life have been the Wokest because they use it to cloak deep-seated insecurities and give cover for highly disrespectful treatment of people in real life.

    Virtue and integrity comes from within, and real change requires practical action tempered by humility and good judgement.

    The Woke have neither.
    One thing to also point out with your comment @Casino_Royale - which I agree with - is that one of the fundamental reason why people who are Woke are generally some of the worst people to meet is because they are so self-righteous about their own beliefs that they believe it gives them carte blanche to be an absolute c*nt when it comes to day to day matters.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,436

    ydoethur said:

    Alistair said:

    FPT

    Change of question:

    Has the Donald been arrested yet? From what I read earlier authorities in New York Stake have a few* suspected criminal matters they wish to question him about.


    Not yet, I don't think they wanted to overshadow Biden's big day.

    SDNY reportedly would have charged Trump and his family years but for the DoJ rule that says you cannot indict sitting Presidents.
    It's not a rule. It's an opinion paper.

    It is not backed by law and never tested in the courts.

    Same as the opinion paper that says a president can't pardon themselves. Just an opinion.
    The Framers really screwed up, they genuinely thought that every man that would become President would be an honourable person.

    A bit like with our monarchy ironically.
    Whatever his shortcomings, Charles is not comparable to Trump.

    (I’m saying nothing about Andrew.)
    Are you sure?

    Both are fornicators and adulterers.

    They both believe in the hereditary principle.

    I mean they'd be nobodies but for their parents.

    Both know people close to Jeffrey Epstein.

    Both treated their ex wives like crap.

    I could go on.
    Yes, you could add Blair, and Clinton
  • MrEdMrEd Posts: 5,578

    MrEd said:

    President Biden and Vice President Harris just now heading down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

    Seventy-two years ago, back in 1949, my father was part of the US Marine Corp honor guard at the inauguration of President Harry Truman.

    My Daddy Dearest was 19 years old, and thus not old enough to vote in 1948. If he HAD voted, almost certainly he'd have voted for Republican Tom Dewey NOT "Give Em Hell" Harry. Who

    Which didn't matter diddly squat to him on that day. For him, it was a proud day - for himself AND for America.

    A day like today.

    Although you and I do not share the same view on Trump - to put it mildly - this is a great story to be able to recite. Kudos to your father.
    Often what Daddy Dearest would have made of Donald Trump? He voted for Ross Perot in 1992, but for Bob Dole in 1996 his last election.

    My guess is, he'd have voted for Trumpsky in 2016, but not 2020. Certainly wish he was around to tell me himself!
    Well, as long as it didn't lead to an argument between the two of you!
  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,976
    Foxy said:

    Somewhere @Casino_Royale is having apoplexy...
    I can't speak for either of them, but personally, the issue with wokedom is not their beliefs (which they are obviously entitled to), but the unfortunate tendency to try and inflict them on others.
  • MrEdMrEd Posts: 5,578

    You have to laugh, looking back at the insane volumes of pixels wasted by the likes of @MrEd etc on the ways in which Biden wasn’t going to be president. Some of the threads in that fortnight after the election are hugely entertaining to read again.

    Whilst I have no time for his politics his view of what the Republicans would attempt to do, was pretty much spot on. Without that information, mine and others understanding of the situation and what was happening would have been far less complete.

    There was a real threat to democracy here.
    Nope. I’m on record over and again saying that the endless lawsuits and recounts were complete nonsense/noise.

    The only time I thought democracy was under threat was the storming of the Capitol. And I was probably wrong about that.

    MrEd was a whole world of wrong from about 6pm EST on election day through the following fortnight.
    Yawn, as opposed to the always right @Anabobazina.....
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,436
    edited January 2021

    I liked Joe's dialled down speech and the occasionally informal moments in the pomp. They did a very good job today. Lovely to see everyone coming together.

    A new era.

    If only you were right. I fear it is bollocks.

    The Democrats are totally captured by Woke-ism. eg Kamala Harris is now described, even by the BBC, as "Black" (with a definite capital b). In what universe is she black? Seriously. Does it now refer to anyone who is non-white? She is clearly brown. Sorry, Brown.

    Frankly, if I were African-American, descended from slaves, I would deeply resent this woman "appropriating" my ancestry of real and terrible suffering. She's Indian and went to Harvard. Yes, she's from a tough-ish background, but it really does not compare to slavery.

    How does this nonsense square with the tens of millions of minimum-wage white Americans in Ohio or Arkansas or Lousiane? The Trump voters? Answer: it doesn't
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,677
    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Alistair said:

    FPT

    Change of question:

    Has the Donald been arrested yet? From what I read earlier authorities in New York Stake have a few* suspected criminal matters they wish to question him about.


    Not yet, I don't think they wanted to overshadow Biden's big day.

    SDNY reportedly would have charged Trump and his family years but for the DoJ rule that says you cannot indict sitting Presidents.
    It's not a rule. It's an opinion paper.

    It is not backed by law and never tested in the courts.

    Same as the opinion paper that says a president can't pardon themselves. Just an opinion.
    The Framers really screwed up, they genuinely thought that every man that would become President would be an honourable person.

    A bit like with our monarchy ironically.
    Whatever his shortcomings, Charles is not comparable to Trump.

    (I’m saying nothing about Andrew.)
    Are you sure?

    Both are fornicators and adulterers.

    They both believe in the hereditary principle.

    I mean they'd be nobodies but for their parents.

    Both know people close to Jeffrey Epstein.

    Both treated their ex wives like crap.

    I could go on.
    Yes, you could add Blair, and Clinton
    Wait... Blair and Clinton have been married before? I must have missed that.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,588
    Leon said:

    I liked Joe's dialled down speech and the occasionally informal moments in the pomp. They did a very good job today. Lovely to see everyone coming together.

    A new era.

    If only you were right. I fear it is bollocks.

    The Democrats are totally captured by Woke-ism. eg Kamala Harris is now described, even by the BBC, as "Black" (with a definite capital b). In what universe is she black? Seriously. Does it now refer to anyone who is non-white? She is clearly brown. Sorry, Brown.

    Frankly, if I were African-American, descended from slaves, I would deeply resent this woman "appropriating" my ancestry of real and terrible suffering. She's Indian and went to Harvard. Yes, she's from a tough-ish background, but it really does not compare to slavery.

    How does this nonsense square with the tens of millions of minimum-wage white Americans in Ohio or Arkansas or Lousiane? The Trump voters? Answer: it doesn't
    I like Biden personally but we'll have to see if he can do anything about the problems ordinary Americans outside the big cities continue to experience. If not there'll be another Trump-like candidate at the next election.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,665
    edited January 2021
    Leon said:

    I liked Joe's dialled down speech and the occasionally informal moments in the pomp. They did a very good job today. Lovely to see everyone coming together.

    A new era.

    If only you were right. I fear it is bollocks.

    The Democrats are totally captured by Woke-ism. eg Kamala Harris is now described, even by the BBC, as "Black" (with a definite capital b). In what universe is she black? Seriously. Does it now refer to anyone who is non-white? She is clearly brown. Sorry, Brown.

    Frankly, if I were African-American, descended from slaves, I would deeply resent this woman "appropriating" my ancestry of real and terrible suffering. She's Indian and went to Harvard. Yes, she's from a tough-ish background, but it really does not compare to slavery.

    How does this nonsense square with the tens of millions of minimum-wage white Americans in Ohio or Arkansas or Lousiane? The Trump voters? Answer: it doesn't
    The father of Kamala Harris is a black dude from Jamaica.

    Perhaps you should acquaint yourselves with some facts before you embarrass yourself once more.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,866
    Lol, as if Boris or Starmer would get any kind of crowd. It would just be embarrassing. The Queen or Charlie draw their own crowds, politicians don't. Not from ordinary people anyway.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,436
    MrEd said:

    Disturbing. Not as disturbing as his sudden obsession with imps, but still.
    I wouldn't read too much into it.

    There's nothing wrong with having "woken up" to injustices that were previously there, and one didn't see or realise, and then to do something about them. It has reasonable goals in mind.

    The issue is that Woke (big W) has become a quasi-religion where it's first and foremost about putting yourself on display and signalling the purity of your credentials. There's no interest in moderation because it's always good to be seen to be more Woke, more angry, and more energetic about it, and it therefore has a maximalising tendency in defiance of common sense.

    That doesn't inspire action, rather it inhibits it, because practical action would otherwise suggest the world is a complex place. Moreover, its behaviour - seeing everything through increasingly ludicrous levels of intersectionality in absolutely everything, cancel culture, hectoring nuance, pulling down statues, and partial views of any alternative view - repells many people who'd otherwise be very sympathetic.

    It's so divisive because everyone who criticises the latter is assumed to oppose the former, and are often called bigots to boot, which many know full-well is disingenuous, whilst the Woke themselves are being entirely self-indulgent, often patronising and frequently hypocritical.

    So, yes, I hate unfairness and injustice to anyone on account of who they are. And I have contempt for Woke as a religion too as I believe to be divisive counterproductive nonsense for which you get judged when you call out their childish bullshit.

    Some of the worst people I've met in my professional life have been the Wokest because they use it to cloak deep-seated insecurities and give cover for highly disrespectful treatment of people in real life.

    Virtue and integrity comes from within, and real change requires practical action tempered by humility and good judgement.

    The Woke have neither.
    One thing to also point out with your comment @Casino_Royale - which I agree with - is that one of the fundamental reason why people who are Woke are generally some of the worst people to meet is because they are so self-righteous about their own beliefs that they believe it gives them carte blanche to be an absolute c*nt when it comes to day to day matters.
    The Woke-est people I know - and I know loads - are not always the worst, or the dimmest. Ultra-Brexiteers can be as bad, easily

    But they are, without exception, the most narcissistic, and self-absorbed
  • Christ, don't give Britain Trump ideas.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,468
    MaxPB said:

    Lol, as if Boris or Starmer would get any kind of crowd. It would just be embarrassing. The Queen or Charlie draw their own crowds, politicians don't. Not from ordinary people anyway.
    Yup. Rank.
  • President Biden and Vice President Harris just now heading down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

    Seventy-two years ago, back in 1949, my father was part of the US Marine Corp honor guard at the inauguration of President Harry Truman.

    My Daddy Dearest was 19 years old, and thus not old enough to vote in 1948. If he HAD voted, almost certainly he'd have voted for Republican Tom Dewey NOT "Give Em Hell" Harry. Who

    Which didn't matter diddly squat to him on that day. For him, it was a proud day - for himself AND for America.

    A day like today.

    I still think that, flawed though he was, Truman was probably the best President of the 20th century.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,677
    dixiedean said:

    Endillion said:

    Foxy said:

    Somewhere @Casino_Royale is having apoplexy...
    I can't speak for either of them, but personally, the issue with wokedom is not their beliefs (which they are obviously entitled to), but the unfortunate tendency to try and inflict them on others.
    A tendency which the anti-woke eschew with almost monk like self-discipline.

    Yes, indeed. Thank goodness the right has never inflict their neoliberal, anti-society, competition-is-all, Laffer curve mumbo-jumbo on us, eh?
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,676
    Never realized Barry from Eastenders could belt out a tune

    Something inside so strong at Bidens knees up was amaze balls
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,677

    President Biden and Vice President Harris just now heading down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

    Seventy-two years ago, back in 1949, my father was part of the US Marine Corp honor guard at the inauguration of President Harry Truman.

    My Daddy Dearest was 19 years old, and thus not old enough to vote in 1948. If he HAD voted, almost certainly he'd have voted for Republican Tom Dewey NOT "Give Em Hell" Harry. Who

    Which didn't matter diddly squat to him on that day. For him, it was a proud day - for himself AND for America.

    A day like today.

    I still think that, flawed though he was, Truman was probably the best President of the 20th century.
    FDR says Hi!
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 36,001

    Christ, don't give Britain Trump ideas.

    Nippy would be well up for it though.

    Loves a flag...
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,866

    Leon said:

    I liked Joe's dialled down speech and the occasionally informal moments in the pomp. They did a very good job today. Lovely to see everyone coming together.

    A new era.

    If only you were right. I fear it is bollocks.

    The Democrats are totally captured by Woke-ism. eg Kamala Harris is now described, even by the BBC, as "Black" (with a definite capital b). In what universe is she black? Seriously. Does it now refer to anyone who is non-white? She is clearly brown. Sorry, Brown.

    Frankly, if I were African-American, descended from slaves, I would deeply resent this woman "appropriating" my ancestry of real and terrible suffering. She's Indian and went to Harvard. Yes, she's from a tough-ish background, but it really does not compare to slavery.

    How does this nonsense square with the tens of millions of minimum-wage white Americans in Ohio or Arkansas or Lousiane? The Trump voters? Answer: it doesn't
    The father of Kamala Harris is a black dude from Jamaica.

    Perhaps you should acquaint yourselves with some facts before you embarrass yourself once more.
    She's also half Indian, and she isn't African American in any sense that she is descended from a US slave lineage. Like Obama her being half black is closer to someone over here than over there, her experiences as a half Jamaican, half Indian woman will be completely different to an African American living in the deep south getting called a n***** and being threatened for dating outside of their race both by their own race and by others.

    Hopefully she can relate to the latter group, but I'm not sure she will at all. Black Americans are still waiting for representation after the disappointment of Obama, the GOP could really throw a huge spanner in the works by nominating an African American candidate for 2024.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,677
    MaxPB said:

    Lol, as if Boris or Starmer would get any kind of crowd. It would just be embarrassing. The Queen or Charlie draw their own crowds, politicians don't. Not from ordinary people anyway.
    I think Tony Blair might have in 1997. None of the others in my living memory though.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,436

    Leon said:

    I liked Joe's dialled down speech and the occasionally informal moments in the pomp. They did a very good job today. Lovely to see everyone coming together.

    A new era.

    If only you were right. I fear it is bollocks.

    The Democrats are totally captured by Woke-ism. eg Kamala Harris is now described, even by the BBC, as "Black" (with a definite capital b). In what universe is she black? Seriously. Does it now refer to anyone who is non-white? She is clearly brown. Sorry, Brown.

    Frankly, if I were African-American, descended from slaves, I would deeply resent this woman "appropriating" my ancestry of real and terrible suffering. She's Indian and went to Harvard. Yes, she's from a tough-ish background, but it really does not compare to slavery.

    How does this nonsense square with the tens of millions of minimum-wage white Americans in Ohio or Arkansas or Lousiane? The Trump voters? Answer: it doesn't
    The father of Kamala Harris is a black dude from Jamaica.

    Perhaps you should acquaint yourselves with some facts before you embarrass yourself once more.
    Or, alternatively, learn something yourself

    "Born on August 23, 1938 in Brown's Town, St. Ann Parish, Jamaica, Donald J. Harris is the son of Beryl Christie (Finnegan, through her second husband[citation needed]) and Oscar Joseph Harris, who were of Afro-Jamaican heritage"

    Her "Blackness" is pretty tenuous. Unless everyone with black ancestors can claim Blackness?


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_J._Harris

    If anyone who has any Black blood is by definition Black then that includes trillions of Americans. Indeed all of us, as we are all descended from Africans

    Hyper race-awareness is a species of madness, a modern possession by demons.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,126
    Going off the way they do reminds them of what they are - disposable.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,126
    edited January 2021
    This has been part of the hope for Trump not being a major force moving forward - bottom line is he's a loser now.

    But he still has fans for now.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,677
    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    I liked Joe's dialled down speech and the occasionally informal moments in the pomp. They did a very good job today. Lovely to see everyone coming together.

    A new era.

    If only you were right. I fear it is bollocks.

    The Democrats are totally captured by Woke-ism. eg Kamala Harris is now described, even by the BBC, as "Black" (with a definite capital b). In what universe is she black? Seriously. Does it now refer to anyone who is non-white? She is clearly brown. Sorry, Brown.

    Frankly, if I were African-American, descended from slaves, I would deeply resent this woman "appropriating" my ancestry of real and terrible suffering. She's Indian and went to Harvard. Yes, she's from a tough-ish background, but it really does not compare to slavery.

    How does this nonsense square with the tens of millions of minimum-wage white Americans in Ohio or Arkansas or Lousiane? The Trump voters? Answer: it doesn't
    The father of Kamala Harris is a black dude from Jamaica.

    Perhaps you should acquaint yourselves with some facts before you embarrass yourself once more.
    She's also half Indian, and she isn't African American in any sense that she is descended from a US slave lineage. Like Obama her being half black is closer to someone over here than over there, her experiences as a half Jamaican, half Indian woman will be completely different to an African American living in the deep south getting called a n***** and being threatened for dating outside of their race both by their own race and by others.

    Hopefully she can relate to the latter group, but I'm not sure she will at all. Black Americans are still waiting for representation after the disappointment of Obama, the GOP could really throw a huge spanner in the works by nominating an African American candidate for 2024.
    They could but they certainly won't. Not when you consider the Republicans who tend to vote in primaries.
  • I'm sure Sturgeon will be effusive in her thanks.....(but one does wonder why its being done now, not earlier):

    https://twitter.com/STVNews/status/1351926256456101899?s=20

    If you listened to Nicola’s press conferences, instead of just being snarky about her, you would know.
    What did Sturgeon say?
    “To answer your question about the Army, they have been involved in different points of our pandemic response all along. This is not as simple or a case of suddenly involving the Army.

    “The Army were based in this building for a quite significant time period last year, so we call on them when we think they have the particular expertise to help with particular tasks.

    “We are really grateful to them for that.”
    Delighted to be right that Nicola was effusive in her thanks.....but still wondering why this has not been done before now - did she say?
    Because the limiting factor is the supply of the vaccine?
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    ydoethur said:

    Alistair said:

    FPT

    Change of question:

    Has the Donald been arrested yet? From what I read earlier authorities in New York Stake have a few* suspected criminal matters they wish to question him about.


    Not yet, I don't think they wanted to overshadow Biden's big day.

    SDNY reportedly would have charged Trump and his family years but for the DoJ rule that says you cannot indict sitting Presidents.
    It's not a rule. It's an opinion paper.

    It is not backed by law and never tested in the courts.

    Same as the opinion paper that says a president can't pardon themselves. Just an opinion.
    The Framers really screwed up, they genuinely thought that every man that would become President would be an honourable person.

    A bit like with our monarchy ironically.
    Whatever his shortcomings, Charles is not comparable to Trump.

    (I’m saying nothing about Andrew.)
    Thank you for putting that on the record
  • dixiedean said:

    Endillion said:

    Foxy said:

    Somewhere @Casino_Royale is having apoplexy...
    I can't speak for either of them, but personally, the issue with wokedom is not their beliefs (which they are obviously entitled to), but the unfortunate tendency to try and inflict them on others.
    A tendency which the anti-woke eschew with almost monk like self-discipline.

    Yes, indeed. Thank goodness the right has never inflict their neoliberal, anti-society, competition-is-all, Laffer curve mumbo-jumbo on us, eh?
    They just quietly and modestly embody their beliefs in stachoos.
  • MortimerMortimer Posts: 14,127
    MaxPB said:

    Lol, as if Boris or Starmer would get any kind of crowd. It would just be embarrassing. The Queen or Charlie draw their own crowds, politicians don't. Not from ordinary people anyway.
    As it should be for head of Govt, IMO.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,477
    edited January 2021
    Leon said:

    MrEd said:

    Disturbing. Not as disturbing as his sudden obsession with imps, but still.
    I wouldn't read too much into it.

    There's nothing wrong with having "woken up" to injustices that were previously there, and one didn't see or realise, and then to do something about them. It has reasonable goals in mind.

    The issue is that Woke (big W) has become a quasi-religion where it's first and foremost about putting yourself on display and signalling the purity of your credentials. There's no interest in moderation because it's always good to be seen to be more Woke, more angry, and more energetic about it, and it therefore has a maximalising tendency in defiance of common sense.

    That doesn't inspire action, rather it inhibits it, because practical action would otherwise suggest the world is a complex place. Moreover, its behaviour - seeing everything through increasingly ludicrous levels of intersectionality in absolutely everything, cancel culture, hectoring nuance, pulling down statues, and partial views of any alternative view - repells many people who'd otherwise be very sympathetic.

    It's so divisive because everyone who criticises the latter is assumed to oppose the former, and are often called bigots to boot, which many know full-well is disingenuous, whilst the Woke themselves are being entirely self-indulgent, often patronising and frequently hypocritical.

    So, yes, I hate unfairness and injustice to anyone on account of who they are. And I have contempt for Woke as a religion too as I believe to be divisive counterproductive nonsense for which you get judged when you call out their childish bullshit.

    Some of the worst people I've met in my professional life have been the Wokest because they use it to cloak deep-seated insecurities and give cover for highly disrespectful treatment of people in real life.

    Virtue and integrity comes from within, and real change requires practical action tempered by humility and good judgement.

    The Woke have neither.
    One thing to also point out with your comment @Casino_Royale - which I agree with - is that one of the fundamental reason why people who are Woke are generally some of the worst people to meet is because they are so self-righteous about their own beliefs that they believe it gives them carte blanche to be an absolute c*nt when it comes to day to day matters.
    The Woke-est people I know - and I know loads - are not always the worst, or the dimmest. Ultra-Brexiteers can be as bad, easily

    But they are, without exception, the most narcissistic, and self-absorbed
    Woke people aren't the brightest. A vegan diet doesn't help them either sadly.
  • FenmanFenman Posts: 1,047
    MaxPB said:

    Lol, as if Boris or Starmer would get any kind of crowd. It would just be embarrassing. The Queen or Charlie draw their own crowds, politicians don't. Not from ordinary people anyway.
    Could have happened in 1997 perhaps....
  • TresTres Posts: 2,702
    Had a few ales already have we?
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,677
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I liked Joe's dialled down speech and the occasionally informal moments in the pomp. They did a very good job today. Lovely to see everyone coming together.

    A new era.

    If only you were right. I fear it is bollocks.

    The Democrats are totally captured by Woke-ism. eg Kamala Harris is now described, even by the BBC, as "Black" (with a definite capital b). In what universe is she black? Seriously. Does it now refer to anyone who is non-white? She is clearly brown. Sorry, Brown.

    Frankly, if I were African-American, descended from slaves, I would deeply resent this woman "appropriating" my ancestry of real and terrible suffering. She's Indian and went to Harvard. Yes, she's from a tough-ish background, but it really does not compare to slavery.

    How does this nonsense square with the tens of millions of minimum-wage white Americans in Ohio or Arkansas or Lousiane? The Trump voters? Answer: it doesn't
    The father of Kamala Harris is a black dude from Jamaica.

    Perhaps you should acquaint yourselves with some facts before you embarrass yourself once more.
    Or, alternatively, learn something yourself

    "Born on August 23, 1938 in Brown's Town, St. Ann Parish, Jamaica, Donald J. Harris is the son of Beryl Christie (Finnegan, through her second husband[citation needed]) and Oscar Joseph Harris, who were of Afro-Jamaican heritage"

    Her "Blackness" is pretty tenuous. Unless everyone with black ancestors can claim Blackness?


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_J._Harris

    If anyone who has any Black blood is by definition Black then that includes trillions of Americans. Indeed all of us, as we are all descended from Africans

    Hyper race-awareness is a species of madness, a modern possession by demons.
    But presumably you accept that Harris is descended from African slaves, a trait she has in common with most black Americans?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,436
    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    I liked Joe's dialled down speech and the occasionally informal moments in the pomp. They did a very good job today. Lovely to see everyone coming together.

    A new era.

    If only you were right. I fear it is bollocks.

    The Democrats are totally captured by Woke-ism. eg Kamala Harris is now described, even by the BBC, as "Black" (with a definite capital b). In what universe is she black? Seriously. Does it now refer to anyone who is non-white? She is clearly brown. Sorry, Brown.

    Frankly, if I were African-American, descended from slaves, I would deeply resent this woman "appropriating" my ancestry of real and terrible suffering. She's Indian and went to Harvard. Yes, she's from a tough-ish background, but it really does not compare to slavery.

    How does this nonsense square with the tens of millions of minimum-wage white Americans in Ohio or Arkansas or Lousiane? The Trump voters? Answer: it doesn't
    The father of Kamala Harris is a black dude from Jamaica.

    Perhaps you should acquaint yourselves with some facts before you embarrass yourself once more.
    She's also half Indian, and she isn't African American in any sense that she is descended from a US slave lineage. Like Obama her being half black is closer to someone over here than over there, her experiences as a half Jamaican, half Indian woman will be completely different to an African American living in the deep south getting called a n***** and being threatened for dating outside of their race both by their own race and by others.

    Hopefully she can relate to the latter group, but I'm not sure she will at all. Black Americans are still waiting for representation after the disappointment of Obama, the GOP could really throw a huge spanner in the works by nominating an African American candidate for 2024.
    Her Dad was a professor at Stanford, and a visiting fellow at Cambridge, her Mum studied endocrinology at Berkeley, CA. She is pale brown, if you are obsessed with colour (god help us). This shite is insane.

    Trump was an odious, lunatic, dangerous moron, with an unfortunate gift for populism. I am feverishly pleased he is gone. I never want to hear his pathetic voice again. May he rot in Florida.

    But I don't see Biden-Harris as the solution to America's terrible polarisation. I fear they might make it worse.

    Meanwhile, China arises, casually genociding its Muslims.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,092
    edited January 2021
    kinabalu said:

    C4 doing a longish piece following Trump supporters from before the election, including the shaman headdress guy. I actually felt more than a scintilla of pity for a lot of them, and if it were possible, even more loathing for the prick that led them to the place they’re in. May replay some of the footage of Don Jr and Eric greetin’ for some karmic soothing.

    Same reaction here. All the vulnerable people. Why must they be exploited so.
    Bill Maher take including info on the lady who was killed that I haven't seen reported elsewhere. Reminded me quite a lot of Plato...

    https://youtu.be/8_eeavqZ8V8
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,468

    Leon said:

    MrEd said:

    Disturbing. Not as disturbing as his sudden obsession with imps, but still.
    I wouldn't read too much into it.

    There's nothing wrong with having "woken up" to injustices that were previously there, and one didn't see or realise, and then to do something about them. It has reasonable goals in mind.

    The issue is that Woke (big W) has become a quasi-religion where it's first and foremost about putting yourself on display and signalling the purity of your credentials. There's no interest in moderation because it's always good to be seen to be more Woke, more angry, and more energetic about it, and it therefore has a maximalising tendency in defiance of common sense.

    That doesn't inspire action, rather it inhibits it, because practical action would otherwise suggest the world is a complex place. Moreover, its behaviour - seeing everything through increasingly ludicrous levels of intersectionality in absolutely everything, cancel culture, hectoring nuance, pulling down statues, and partial views of any alternative view - repells many people who'd otherwise be very sympathetic.

    It's so divisive because everyone who criticises the latter is assumed to oppose the former, and are often called bigots to boot, which many know full-well is disingenuous, whilst the Woke themselves are being entirely self-indulgent, often patronising and frequently hypocritical.

    So, yes, I hate unfairness and injustice to anyone on account of who they are. And I have contempt for Woke as a religion too as I believe to be divisive counterproductive nonsense for which you get judged when you call out their childish bullshit.

    Some of the worst people I've met in my professional life have been the Wokest because they use it to cloak deep-seated insecurities and give cover for highly disrespectful treatment of people in real life.

    Virtue and integrity comes from within, and real change requires practical action tempered by humility and good judgement.

    The Woke have neither.
    One thing to also point out with your comment @Casino_Royale - which I agree with - is that one of the fundamental reason why people who are Woke are generally some of the worst people to meet is because they are so self-righteous about their own beliefs that they believe it gives them carte blanche to be an absolute c*nt when it comes to day to day matters.
    The Woke-est people I know - and I know loads - are not always the worst, or the dimmest. Ultra-Brexiteers can be as bad, easily

    But they are, without exception, the most narcissistic, and self-absorbed
    Woke people aren't the brightest. A vegan diet doesn't help them either sadly.
    You really are obsessed with what other people choose to eat.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,600
    To be followed, I fear, by 364 Days of Disunity....
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,665
    edited January 2021
    The father of Kamala Harris.

    Obviously not a black dude.


  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,436

    President Biden and Vice President Harris just now heading down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

    Seventy-two years ago, back in 1949, my father was part of the US Marine Corp honor guard at the inauguration of President Harry Truman.

    My Daddy Dearest was 19 years old, and thus not old enough to vote in 1948. If he HAD voted, almost certainly he'd have voted for Republican Tom Dewey NOT "Give Em Hell" Harry. Who

    Which didn't matter diddly squat to him on that day. For him, it was a proud day - for himself AND for America.

    A day like today.

    I still think that, flawed though he was, Truman was probably the best President of the 20th century.
    FDR says Hi!
    How about Ike. Presided over the final ascent of America to hegemony. Oversaw (I believe, I haven't checked) an unprecedented surge in American personal prosperity. Generally avoided wars. Genial.

    I miss the America that benignly ruled the world. We can already see what the future, non-American world is like, where China is entirely ascendant (which it is, already). It is not good

  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,976

    dixiedean said:

    Endillion said:

    Foxy said:

    Somewhere @Casino_Royale is having apoplexy...
    I can't speak for either of them, but personally, the issue with wokedom is not their beliefs (which they are obviously entitled to), but the unfortunate tendency to try and inflict them on others.
    A tendency which the anti-woke eschew with almost monk like self-discipline.

    Yes, indeed. Thank goodness the right has never inflict their neoliberal, anti-society, competition-is-all, Laffer curve mumbo-jumbo on us, eh?
    I'm happy to stipulate that the right can be obnoxious as well. I'm just not sure anyone's ever lost their job for insufficient fervour for right wing economics.

    Unless you think that by "try and inflict them on others" I meant by voting?
  • Record vaccination number today....doing many times every other European country every day.....

    https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1352003566307848193?s=19
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,677
    Scott_xP said:
    A great photo, and a sign that the future in the US might not be too grim.
  • Scott_xP said:

    Christ, don't give Britain Trump ideas.

    Nippy would be well up for it though.

    Loves a flag...
    That must be right cos lots of twitter accounts with flegs in their profiles have said so. I think six is the record for a single account I've seen (UJ, English, Scottish, Spanish, Israeli and Stars'n'Stripes) #patriotsnotnationalists
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    edited January 2021
    stodge said:

    As far as today's events in Washington are concerned:

    I wish President Biden and his administration well and I hope they can bring peace and prosperity not just to the USA but to the whole world.

    I confess I've never "got" Trump - I simply don't understand his appeal, his attraction or why anyone should regard him with almost Messianic fervour. I recognise that if you're desperate enough you'll follow any snake oil salesman who promises you life can be better and maybe it's because I've never had that state of mind I don't get it.

    It may be I don't understand people - I'll cheerfully concede that point. Beyond the promises, I never understood why Trump got the support he did. Any superficial analysis of his utterings would reveal them to be nonsense - well, that's how they seemed to me.

    He said the quiet parts loud of the Republican platform.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,712
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I liked Joe's dialled down speech and the occasionally informal moments in the pomp. They did a very good job today. Lovely to see everyone coming together.

    A new era.

    If only you were right. I fear it is bollocks.

    The Democrats are totally captured by Woke-ism. eg Kamala Harris is now described, even by the BBC, as "Black" (with a definite capital b). In what universe is she black? Seriously. Does it now refer to anyone who is non-white? She is clearly brown. Sorry, Brown.

    Frankly, if I were African-American, descended from slaves, I would deeply resent this woman "appropriating" my ancestry of real and terrible suffering. She's Indian and went to Harvard. Yes, she's from a tough-ish background, but it really does not compare to slavery.

    How does this nonsense square with the tens of millions of minimum-wage white Americans in Ohio or Arkansas or Lousiane? The Trump voters? Answer: it doesn't
    The father of Kamala Harris is a black dude from Jamaica.

    Perhaps you should acquaint yourselves with some facts before you embarrass yourself once more.
    Or, alternatively, learn something yourself

    "Born on August 23, 1938 in Brown's Town, St. Ann Parish, Jamaica, Donald J. Harris is the son of Beryl Christie (Finnegan, through her second husband[citation needed]) and Oscar Joseph Harris, who were of Afro-Jamaican heritage"

    Her "Blackness" is pretty tenuous. Unless everyone with black ancestors can claim Blackness?


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_J._Harris

    If anyone who has any Black blood is by definition Black then that includes trillions of Americans. Indeed all of us, as we are all descended from Africans

    Hyper race-awareness is a species of madness, a modern possession by demons.
    Her father was a black Jamaican, born to other black Jamaicans. What is the chance that her paternal ancestors were slaves? Close to 100%, I would think.

    To say she is not Black is absurd. Of course she has Indian heritage too.

  • MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    I liked Joe's dialled down speech and the occasionally informal moments in the pomp. They did a very good job today. Lovely to see everyone coming together.

    A new era.

    If only you were right. I fear it is bollocks.

    The Democrats are totally captured by Woke-ism. eg Kamala Harris is now described, even by the BBC, as "Black" (with a definite capital b). In what universe is she black? Seriously. Does it now refer to anyone who is non-white? She is clearly brown. Sorry, Brown.

    Frankly, if I were African-American, descended from slaves, I would deeply resent this woman "appropriating" my ancestry of real and terrible suffering. She's Indian and went to Harvard. Yes, she's from a tough-ish background, but it really does not compare to slavery.

    How does this nonsense square with the tens of millions of minimum-wage white Americans in Ohio or Arkansas or Lousiane? The Trump voters? Answer: it doesn't
    The father of Kamala Harris is a black dude from Jamaica.

    Perhaps you should acquaint yourselves with some facts before you embarrass yourself once more.
    She's also half Indian, and she isn't African American in any sense that she is descended from a US slave lineage. Like Obama her being half black is closer to someone over here than over there, her experiences as a half Jamaican, half Indian woman will be completely different to an African American living in the deep south getting called a n***** and being threatened for dating outside of their race both by their own race and by others.

    Hopefully she can relate to the latter group, but I'm not sure she will at all. Black Americans are still waiting for representation after the disappointment of Obama, the GOP could really throw a huge spanner in the works by nominating an African American candidate for 2024.
    Within a few decades we'll all be melting pots of mixed heritages.

    I've done my bit on that front.

    I think she had mentioned how she got strange looks for having white boyfriends/partners.

    There were de facto and de jure laws banning mixed race marriages in America during her lifetime.
  • The father of Kamala Harris.

    Obviously not a black dude.


    Somebody will be getting his colour chart out.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Leon banging on about other people being hyper-race aware?

    I wondered why my irony metre was bleeping loudly.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,696
    Leon said:

    President Biden and Vice President Harris just now heading down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

    Seventy-two years ago, back in 1949, my father was part of the US Marine Corp honor guard at the inauguration of President Harry Truman.

    My Daddy Dearest was 19 years old, and thus not old enough to vote in 1948. If he HAD voted, almost certainly he'd have voted for Republican Tom Dewey NOT "Give Em Hell" Harry. Who

    Which didn't matter diddly squat to him on that day. For him, it was a proud day - for himself AND for America.

    A day like today.

    I still think that, flawed though he was, Truman was probably the best President of the 20th century.
    FDR says Hi!
    How about Ike. Presided over the final ascent of America to hegemony. Oversaw (I believe, I haven't checked) an unprecedented surge in American personal prosperity. Generally avoided wars. Genial.

    I miss the America that benignly ruled the world. We can already see what the future, non-American world is like, where China is entirely ascendant (which it is, already). It is not good
    Wolf-warrior diplomacy:
    https://twitter.com/UNWatch/status/1351894840800399360
  • Time for me rant once about middle class people pretending to be working class plebs, this author gets it.

    The new elites are working-class wannabes

    Once it was frowned upon to be nouveau riche, now we all want to prove we’ve risen on merit


    There’s a scene in Martin Amis’s memoir Experience in which he describes his children badgering him on a car journey: “Why do you say Fri-dee and Mon-dee and Thurs-dee” they want to know. After some embarrassed prevarication, Amis concedes that “I trained myself to do it in my teens because I thought it sounded posh … it used to be cool to be posh.” His sons respond with incredulity: “Did it? … Christ.”

    That conversation is a symptom of a fascinating social transformation. Middle class British people no longer pretend to be posh. Quite the opposite. According to a study published this week in the journal Sociology, “47 per cent of those in ‘middle-class’ professional and managerial occupations identify as working class”. What’s more, 24 per cent of people doing middle-class jobs whose parents also did middle-class jobs identified as working class too.

    On the basis of 175 interviews with people of various class backgrounds, the study’s authors theorise that by manipulating the stories of their class origins (often by reaching back to tales of less-privileged grandparents) respondents were justifying their social success as “legitimate” in the context of a supposedly meritocratic society that rewards talent regardless of background. According to contemporary morality it is better to have earned your success than it is to have been born into it.

    The idea is a recent one. Not so long ago, social elites were desperate to show they had not earned their positions at the top of society. Nouveau riche industrialists and merchants spent huge sums of money acquiring coats of arms and manipulating family trees in order to cultivate the impression that their status had nothing to do with hard work. Heredity was a far greater source of social legitimacy.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-new-elites-are-working-class-wannabes-7twdj7cfr
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,436

    The father of Kamala Harris.

    Obviously not a black dude.


    I am directly descended from the estimated 20,000 Homo sapiens - the population of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire - who crossed from Africa to Europe many years ago. I am therefore black. Soz. I mean, Black

    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2010/01/human-ancestors-were-endangered-species

    But you say I am not BLACK like Kamala Harris. How do you know? Perhaps you could check me against a colour chart, or put a pencil in my hair? I have no idea.
  • Why you have to use a very small number of services like AWS for your infrastructure...

    https://www.lastweekinaws.com/blog/parlers-new-serverless-architecture/
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,866
    Foxy said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I liked Joe's dialled down speech and the occasionally informal moments in the pomp. They did a very good job today. Lovely to see everyone coming together.

    A new era.

    If only you were right. I fear it is bollocks.

    The Democrats are totally captured by Woke-ism. eg Kamala Harris is now described, even by the BBC, as "Black" (with a definite capital b). In what universe is she black? Seriously. Does it now refer to anyone who is non-white? She is clearly brown. Sorry, Brown.

    Frankly, if I were African-American, descended from slaves, I would deeply resent this woman "appropriating" my ancestry of real and terrible suffering. She's Indian and went to Harvard. Yes, she's from a tough-ish background, but it really does not compare to slavery.

    How does this nonsense square with the tens of millions of minimum-wage white Americans in Ohio or Arkansas or Lousiane? The Trump voters? Answer: it doesn't
    The father of Kamala Harris is a black dude from Jamaica.

    Perhaps you should acquaint yourselves with some facts before you embarrass yourself once more.
    Or, alternatively, learn something yourself

    "Born on August 23, 1938 in Brown's Town, St. Ann Parish, Jamaica, Donald J. Harris is the son of Beryl Christie (Finnegan, through her second husband[citation needed]) and Oscar Joseph Harris, who were of Afro-Jamaican heritage"

    Her "Blackness" is pretty tenuous. Unless everyone with black ancestors can claim Blackness?


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_J._Harris

    If anyone who has any Black blood is by definition Black then that includes trillions of Americans. Indeed all of us, as we are all descended from Africans

    Hyper race-awareness is a species of madness, a modern possession by demons.
    Her father was a black Jamaican, born to other black Jamaicans. What is the chance that her paternal ancestors were slaves? Close to 100%, I would think.

    To say she is not Black is absurd. Of course she has Indian heritage too.

    It's a completely different experience to being born into a segregated America where you grow up having to sit in coloured seats on buses or use different entrances to buildings. The experience of black Americans is a really horrible story of persecution, I don't think she will have had the same experiences in her life. She will have had a life more along the lines of what a black or brown person experiences in the UK, not comfortable and awful individual encounters with some nasty people but overall one of acceptance and, frankly, indifference to skin colour.
  • Leon said:

    The father of Kamala Harris.

    Obviously not a black dude.


    I am directly descended from the estimated 20,000 Homo sapiens - the population of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire - who crossed from Africa to Europe many years ago. I am therefore black. Soz. I mean, Black

    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2010/01/human-ancestors-were-endangered-species

    But you say I am not BLACK like Kamala Harris. How do you know? Perhaps you could check me against a colour chart, or put a pencil in my hair? I have no idea.
    Because I've seen what you look like.

    You couldn't be any more white if your name was Whitey McWhiteface.
  • Wouldn't blame if he was tbh, anything to occupy the 4 months until he becomes FM.

    https://twitter.com/MrDanDonoghue/status/1351971160825729026?s=20
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468

    To be followed, I fear, by 364 Days of Disunity....
    Otherwise known as "The Purge"
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,436

    Leon said:

    The father of Kamala Harris.

    Obviously not a black dude.


    I am directly descended from the estimated 20,000 Homo sapiens - the population of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire - who crossed from Africa to Europe many years ago. I am therefore black. Soz. I mean, Black

    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2010/01/human-ancestors-were-endangered-species

    But you say I am not BLACK like Kamala Harris. How do you know? Perhaps you could check me against a colour chart, or put a pencil in my hair? I have no idea.
    Because I've seen what you look like.

    You couldn't be any more white if your name was Whitey McWhiteface.
    Seriously. You say Kamala Harris is Black. How do you know? And how would you check?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 36,001

    Because I've seen what you look like.

    You couldn't be any more white if your name was Whitey McWhiteface.

    But Leon is a new poster. Where did you meet?
  • I could have sworn there was a lockdown...

    https://twitter.com/CrimeLdn/status/1352005021643247618?s=19
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,712

    The father of Kamala Harris.

    Obviously not a black dude.


    Presumably @Leon has so absorbed woke culture that he recognises that Harris senior had become culturally white through absorption into Western academic culture, and that his skin colour was irrelevant to his whiteness.

    (In case of doubt, I am taking the piss, and I believe Harris senior has done extensive work for Black causes)
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468
    kle4 said:
    Earlier today, the Southern District of NY alone said it had 67 ...
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,881

    Leon said:

    The father of Kamala Harris.

    Obviously not a black dude.


    I am directly descended from the estimated 20,000 Homo sapiens - the population of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire - who crossed from Africa to Europe many years ago. I am therefore black. Soz. I mean, Black

    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2010/01/human-ancestors-were-endangered-species

    But you say I am not BLACK like Kamala Harris. How do you know? Perhaps you could check me against a colour chart, or put a pencil in my hair? I have no idea.
    Because I've seen what you look like.

    You couldn't be any more white if your name was Whitey McWhiteface.
    I'm also rather surprised to learn that the people of Tewkesbury are all sub-Saharan Africans by birth. They looked pretty peely-wally (anglice: pallid) when I went through there some years back.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,436

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    The father of Kamala Harris.

    Obviously not a black dude.


    I am directly descended from the estimated 20,000 Homo sapiens - the population of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire - who crossed from Africa to Europe many years ago. I am therefore black. Soz. I mean, Black

    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2010/01/human-ancestors-were-endangered-species

    But you say I am not BLACK like Kamala Harris. How do you know? Perhaps you could check me against a colour chart, or put a pencil in my hair? I have no idea.
    Because I've seen what you look like.

    You couldn't be any more white if your name was Whitey McWhiteface.
    Seriously. You say Kamala Harris is Black. How do you know? And how would you check?
    I say she's of black heritage due to her well you know black Jamaican father.
    How do you know he is Black? Have you got out your color thingy?

    What if her grandfather were black? Would that be enough? What about a great great great great grandfather?


  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,126
    edited January 2021
    Scott_xP said:

    Such a prosecution would be pretty controversial, and the Justice Department could decide charging Trump is not in the public interest even if there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

    Joe Biden has approached that question very carefully, saying he would not interfere with his Justice Department’s judgment.

    Biden told National Public Radio in August that pursuing criminal charges against his predecessor would be “a very, very unusual thing and probably not very – how can I say it? – good for democracy”.


    I get doing a public interest test, but that really seems like a strange attitude, as though having been president it would be weird to pursue criminal charges on principle. A guy like Trump would use that as an excuse to commit more crimes.

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    The father of Kamala Harris.

    Obviously not a black dude.


    I am directly descended from the estimated 20,000 Homo sapiens - the population of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire - who crossed from Africa to Europe many years ago. I am therefore black. Soz. I mean, Black

    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2010/01/human-ancestors-were-endangered-species

    But you say I am not BLACK like Kamala Harris. How do you know? Perhaps you could check me against a colour chart, or put a pencil in my hair? I have no idea.
    Because I've seen what you look like.

    You couldn't be any more white if your name was Whitey McWhiteface.
    Seriously. You say Kamala Harris is Black. How do you know? And how would you check?
    I say she's of black heritage due to her well you know black Jamaican father.
    It's a weird point to be stubborn on. I think its easier to have a pointless argument on something closer to accurate if that's what he ones
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,712

    Wouldn't blame if he was tbh, anything to occupy the 4 months until he becomes FM.

    https://twitter.com/MrDanDonoghue/status/1351971160825729026?s=20

    Tis a pity. It might have made him a bit more interesting.
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,288
    kle4 said:
    Malmesbury will be producing charts and calculating the R number daily.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,676

    Record vaccination number today....doing many times every other European country every day.....

    https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1352003566307848193?s=19

    Shut today and tomorrow in Chesterfields main centre ran out of vaccine yesterday.


    Been told they can only have enough for 3 days next week despite been set up as a 7 day a week operation
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,436
    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    The father of Kamala Harris.

    Obviously not a black dude.


    I am directly descended from the estimated 20,000 Homo sapiens - the population of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire - who crossed from Africa to Europe many years ago. I am therefore black. Soz. I mean, Black

    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2010/01/human-ancestors-were-endangered-species

    But you say I am not BLACK like Kamala Harris. How do you know? Perhaps you could check me against a colour chart, or put a pencil in my hair? I have no idea.
    Because I've seen what you look like.

    You couldn't be any more white if your name was Whitey McWhiteface.
    I'm also rather surprised to learn that the people of Tewkesbury are all sub-Saharan Africans by birth. They looked pretty peely-wally (anglice: pallid) when I went through there some years back.
    The abbey is lovely. Great for summer picnics, Beware the indigenous population, however. Primitive
This discussion has been closed.