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Given what everybody is talking about it we probably need a thread on this – politicalbetting.com
Given what everybody is talking about it we probably need a thread on this – politicalbetting.com
I had not planned to run a thread on tonight’s big interview but this is what everybody seems to be talking about so here it is.
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GPT3?
Also, this: Harry looks a lot like the Duke of Ed as a young man
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/the-photo-that-puts-an-end-to-ugly-rumour-about-prince-harry/GYWQFI56AXCE7C5SDFAFYV3CZ4/
However, there are particular photos of Hewitt and Harry, which, when set together, would make anyone wonder
https://twitter.com/ChrisJHudson/status/1368595840886013952?s=20
It's not Justin Welby and Anthony Montague Browne close.
https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1368959692475613186?s=20
As I said earlier, given that baby Archie is three-quarters white (Meghan's dad is white after all), can it really be credible for Meghan to claim that anyone (Royal or otherwise) would be concerned how "black" his skin would be?
I heard questions of curiosity about the baby at the time of the "is it ginger?" type.
Some members of the public were just curious. A handful were malicious.
As far as I can tell the royal family were delighted.
It only encourages folk.
And ever hear of Marty Povich?
Speculation re: the prospective physical appearance of soon-to-be born infants is NOT rare, let alone unheard of.
"Persistent suggestions have been made in the media that Hewitt, and not Charles, is the biological father of Diana's second son, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (born 1984). Hewitt stated to the press in 2002 that Harry had already been born by the time of the affair, a statement also made by Diana's police bodyguard. He reiterated this in an interview in 2017. Diana attributed Harry's red hair colouration to her side of the family, calling him her "little Spencer"."
I didn’t even realise Meghan was black until I read about it in the papers
Oh c'mon, TSE doesn't need a thread on Liverpool's implosion.....
In a way, it is a hopeful sign of things returning to normal. FINALLY the biggest news story is not Covid. The plague is receding, emotionally
Suspect it MAY have different meanings to different folks.
What it shows is that a ton of people are indifferent, which I guess is as expected.
Not everyone is crying into their porridge about the "sneering west coast liberal treatment of OUR Royal Family"
Restarting such rumours wouldn't exactly establish the legitimacy of the second in line heir to the throne either. Could be quite some own goal.
I miss the old America, generous, sane and sensible, for all its flaws. But it seems to have gone for good. I just wish the replacement wasn't China.
You will obviously spin any poll to suit your message
Regardless, I'm not an "anti-monarchist". I'm pretty indifferent about the monarchy to be honest.
Oh....
Harry is not second in line for the throne, he is sixth, behind his "dad", his bro and the bro's kids
Royal issue is black and white (6)
If you cease to believe in genetic superiority, then the Royal Family loses its foundation.
China may be an authoritarian dictatorship but one thing you certainly cannot say it is either is filled with self hating, left liberal wokery as the new US elite seems to be.
The US no longer has the strength, the patriotism nor the will to push its agenda and values of freedom and democracy across the world as so much of its elite hates what it and the traditional west stood for, so it no longer deserves to be number 1 really either. Trump had many flaws but he did actually believe in America. Biden maybe just about does still (and without Trump's cosying up to dictators), Harris certainly does not.
Instead we are moving to a more multipolar world where China, the US and India will lead but none having supreme power
I honestly thought it would be about equal. We shall see
The whole field has been invaded by Wokeyness and is now bedevilled.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2021/02/20/google-sacks-second-ethical-ai-researcher-amid-censorship-storm/
I can easily foresee this incredible technology going unused, or being crippled - in America - as it is surrounded by furious rows over alleged bias in the algorithms. Lots of AI researchers are worried this will happen.
Who will benefit? China, of course. They will build GPT4 and they won't give a toss about its political correctness, or lack of.
Here is the important (to me) news.
This week:-
1. My husband got his vaccine. Astra-Zeneca.
2. It is now just over 3 weeks since I got my first Pfizer jab.
3. We finally moved into the Lake District home we started rebuilding in summer of 2018 - with most of the first year taken up with building regs stuff, the next six months with getting quotes and quite a lot of the remaining delay caused by Covid. There is still some small stuff to be done but we are 97% of the way there. It has been quite a journey.
4. I have lots of land on which to garden to my heart's content.
5. Daughter is doing a special Greek meal takeaway for Mother's Day, which always goes down well and is fully booked. The business may even survive until late May.
6. Daughter's cat is pregnant. This may be a mixed blessing given the new wallpaper in the house - but the kittens are, I am assured, spoken for ......
The only fly in the ointment is that I have damaged a knee tendon. But this is a time to count one's blessings. The weather has been quite spring-like of late and it's amazing how cheering daffodils can be.
Good evening, everybody.
A bit like with the change to ultimate primogeniture, I wonder if the monarch had been unable to provide children for whatever reason, whether there would be a push to allow adopted children to inherit. Of course historically you'd just shift to next in line, but if a royal couple could not conceive and wanted to adopt a child, with nothing to do with being heir, I feel like the question would come up, even though it undermines the underpinnings of the concept.
I lived in America for five formative years. The one thing about America to be certain of is that it contains the worst of mankind as well as the best, incredible beauty as well as trashy ugliness, of high ideas and the lowest common denominator. It has always been both a shining city on the hill, and home of some of the darkest deeds.
In that, nothing has changed. Indeed I would argue that pretty much all countries have their dark side as well as positive ones. It is just that in America we see more of it.
Really nice to hear you're feeling more chipper.
Some of them are quite specific and quite shocking.
eg Did the Royal Household really confiscate Meghan's passport and driving licence?! I find it very hard to believe. Why would they do that? That's basically kidnapping. However it is the kind of detailed allegation that probably does require explicit refutation. Which is why, I fear, the Royals can't just remain loftily silent, even tho that would be preferable, in many ways
https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1369064154611466244?s=20
There have been for the past 250 years those who wish to push society forwards: the revolutionaries, the abolitionists, the civil rights pioneers, wokists
And there are those who wish to keep society locked still: the royalists, Jim Crow, the 'states rights' advocates, the Dixiecrats, the 'silent majority'
Indeed, I suspect that is where the poison comes from. The Royals are family after all, so have some filial and fraternal loyalty. It is the courtiers, equerrys and flunkies that have most invested in the institution.
That's the America that, sadly, seems to have departed this world. Superbly optimistic, absolutely self confident - NOT self hating - truly generous in spirit, if ugly in its power, sometimes. An America ascendant that wanted to help the world, and did so.
Gone gone gone.
An appropriate amount of time after she enters the history records its a different matter.
Santa B is two hours from LA
Yes we need to treat people of all backgrounds and races fairly and equally but no we do not need to be filled by self hate, with that comes weakness in terms of leadership, weakness in terms of projection of values and weakness economically as well
That same America has revolutionised personal transport with Tesla as they did with Ford. That same America has revolutionised private space travel with SpaceX and other private space companies.
Not everything is seen through the guise of "woke" or "anti-woke".
Much of Meghan's story - not all - sounds like lurid fantasy, based on misinterpretation (at best). But it does need point by point rebuttal, unfortunately
Even in 1969 America had its dark side simultaneously on show.
I don't think that's very likely, do you?
For me the shocker would have been no racism in the Royal Family. So this did not live up to the hype. I expected more than a revelation that one member showed concern about how dark the baby would be. And even that could have been something more crass than vile.
Nevertheless providing that was the truth about suicidal thoughts and getting no support from the palace my sympathies lie with the couple. And I think it must be the truth because lying about such a thing would make Meghan a truly bad person. Which is unlikely.
And of course the tabloids here are absolute filth.
I don't care about rain. Rather like it in fact as it makes the garden grow.
I may even join the WI and complete my journey into deepest Middle England .....
Sneering down their noses while battening on the fat of the land . . . and fucking up royally as per House of Windsor-Mountbatten-Whatever tradition.
I still want that flawed but confident America back, but wishing won't make it happen. THAT America made the world safer and more democratic. Now America hates itself and is bitterly polarised, and in the last decade the world has got significantly less free, as China has risen.
These things are not unconnected.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/02/02/global-democracy-has-a-very-bad-year
"Guilt and self hate" is a strength not a weakness. It is America's forte and it has riven American for hundreds of years, though thankfully not as badly as the 1850s and 1860s, but it never stopped.
The 1960s when America was putting a man on the moon was when flower power activists and antiwar activists were challenging the Vietnam War, the draft and the age of social and sexual revolutions was going on. It was the decade of "I have a Dream" and countless challenges to civil rights.
America's strength is its ability to fight and challenge itself to be the best version of itself it can be. What you see as a weakness is its fundamental long running principle that leads America to evolve from strength to strength while "strong" regimes become stale, rot from the inside out and eventually collapse.
America's economy as a share of global GDP
https://twitter.com/Scacciavillani/status/1332339682886242304?s=20
50% to 14%
A monumental shift. Yes, America has brilliant companies and world-class innovation. But the decline is brisk
Politico.com - New York AG names legal team to lead Cuomo probe
A former U.S Attorney for the Southern District of New York and an employment discrimination attorney will be leading an investigation into accusations of harassment against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
New York Attorney General Tish James announced Monday that Joon Kim, the former prosecutor, and Anne Clark would head up the investigation.
Kim was a top deputy for former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, who investigated the Cuomo administration's shutdown of a commission charged with looking into corruption in state government several years ago. He served 10 months as acting U.S. attorney after Bharara's departure in 2017. He also led the prosecution of former Cuomo aide Joe Percoco, a top political adviser whom Cuomo likened to a brother. Percoco was sentenced in 2018 to six years in prison on corruption charges. Kim also handled parts of an investigation into New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s fundraising.
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2021/03/08/new-york-ag-names-legal-team-to-lead-cuomo-probe-1367419
AND THIS
Politico.com - Cuomo leans on crisis management playbook as walls close in
The New York Democrat’s reign as "America’s governor" may have come to an end, but it’s far less certain that his actual governorship is end-stage.
From all appearances, the implosion of Andrew Cuomo is near complete. Top aides are leaving his office, and new revelations about his nursing home scandal continue to drip out. Over the weekend, the newspaper of record in his adopted hometown called for his resignation, while two more former aides came forward with accusations of inappropriate conduct.
On Sunday, Democrats at the helm of the state Legislature broke ranks, with the Senate majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, saying Cuomo “must resign” and the Assembly speaker, Carl Heastie, suggesting that, for the good of the state, Cuomo should “seriously consider” whether to remain in office.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/07/cuomo-crisis-management-playbook-474191