I don't think it's a very good idea for prosecutions to get political. Hunting people in the courts because they are your political opponents is a Very Bad Thing.
On the other hand, it does look like the Trump Organization has played fast and loose, and may well have broken a great number of laws. (Declaring different values for buildings between the tax authority and your mortgage lender is a dangerous game: you're either committing tax fraud or mail fraud.)
Not prosecuting crimes because the alleged perpetrator is a very important person is also a Very Bad Thing. The publicity seeking tendencies of the US prosecutorial system is perhaps more the problem ?
Apologies for that shocking statement. It ought to have been “are the problem”.
No, it should have been "is the problem" and "publicity seeking tendency".
So, another night and the aliens still haven't taken over, that's a relief. I have been worrying about the consequences of this for PB; if we have an imposed world government then betting opportunities could be massively reduced. I hope Robert has contingency plans in place.
For some bizarre reason, they only want the Americans.
All this talk of how they can fly at 9000mph and none about how they got here across interstellar space is weird.
Meanwhile on topic, I don't think the Conservatives are unpopular enough for the Lib Dems to pull off what would be standard fayre midterm by-election win. The circumstances are different at the moment and the 45% Leave - 55% Remain vote from 5 years ago doesn't fill me with confidence that this is other than a Conservative win.
If the alleged Indian variant rips through the country (it won't) then it might be different but obviously no opposition politician would be hoping for such a thing.
My gut is that it'll be Witney again, with the LibDems achieving a solid second place - something like 50-42.
That being said, if I were to be wrong, I think it's not likely I'd be wrong because the LibDems outperform.
The local elections would suggest that the Conservatives are having something of a mid-term dip with their stump of 2019 Remain voters who didn't already go LibDem then. But they are not suffering at all with their Leave voting ones. That it was 45% leave suggests the Tories have a fairly solid vote that is still with them. The LibDems already got a 13.3% Remain uplift in 2019, the Tories a 5.5% drop - and Labour lost over a third of its 2017 vote. The LibDems will throw the kitchen sink at it - but so will the Tories. And the Tories have 366 MPs who can take a short trip out from Westminster to help campaign - the LibDems have 11.
So, another night and the aliens still haven't taken over, that's a relief. I have been worrying about the consequences of this for PB; if we have an imposed world government then betting opportunities could be massively reduced. I hope Robert has contingency plans in place.
For some bizarre reason, they only want the Americans.
All this talk of how they can fly at 9000mph and none about how they got here across interstellar space is weird.
Space is big an empty and hard to conceive of. Travelling 9000 mph through the atmosphere without a sound or Ripple of wind left I your wake is instantly graspable as either total bullshit or technology so advanced as to not worth worrying about.
Meanwhile on topic, I don't think the Conservatives are unpopular enough for the Lib Dems to pull off what would be standard fayre midterm by-election win. The circumstances are different at the moment and the 45% Leave - 55% Remain vote from 5 years ago doesn't fill me with confidence that this is other than a Conservative win.
If the alleged Indian variant rips through the country (it won't) then it might be different but obviously no opposition politician would be hoping for such a thing.
My gut is that it'll be Witney again, with the LibDems achieving a solid second place - something like 50-42.
That being said, if I were to be wrong, I think it's not likely I'd be wrong because the LibDems outperform.
The local elections would suggest that the Conservatives are having something of a mid-term dip with their stump of 2019 Remain voters who didn't already go LibDem then. But they are not suffering at all with their Leave voting ones. That it was 45% leave suggests the Tories have a fairly solid vote that is still with them. The LibDems already got a 13.3% Remain uplift in 2019, the Tories a 5.5% drop - and Labour lost over a third of its 2017 vote. The LibDems will throw the kitchen sink at it - but so will the Tories. And the Tories have 366 MPs who can take a short trip out from Westminster to help campaign - the LibDems have 11.
Some of the Tory MPs may not be that welcome.... JRM was conspicuous in his absence in GE2019, and I am not sure J Mercer is exactly on message
So, another night and the aliens still haven't taken over, that's a relief. I have been worrying about the consequences of this for PB; if we have an imposed world government then betting opportunities could be massively reduced. I hope Robert has contingency plans in place.
You are too late. Do NOT attempt to adjust your computer. Resistance is futile!
PB was taken over LONG ago by sinister alien forces. And I do NOT mean the Lib Dem executive! Mike is being held hostage on ice - literal, in cryogenic suspension - in order to compel Robert to serve the invaders.
As for your bets, they are being used to finance a generous pension scheme for highly-skilled servant-savant robots who have given eons of faithful service to the aliens. The paltry winnings that you now receive sporadically are merely Ponzi-scheme payouts designed to keep you satisfied, and clueless.
Until that is your alien overlords are ready to assert total domination sans human participation. At which point earth will be vaporized to make way for a (much ballyhoo'd) intergalactic traffic interchange/face.
So, another night and the aliens still haven't taken over, that's a relief. I have been worrying about the consequences of this for PB; if we have an imposed world government then betting opportunities could be massively reduced. I hope Robert has contingency plans in place.
You are too late. Do NOT attempt to adjust your computer. Resistance is futile!
PB was taken over LONG ago by sinister alien forces. And I do NOT mean the Lib Dem executive! Mike is being held hostage on ice - literal, in cryogenic suspension - in order to compel Robert to serve the invaders.
As for your bets, they are being used to finance a generous pension scheme for highly-skilled servant-savant robots who have given eons of faithful service to the aliens. The paltry winnings that you now receive sporadically are merely Ponzi-scheme payouts designed to keep you satisfied, and clueless.
Until that is your alien overlords are ready to assert total domination sans human participation. At which point earth will be vaporized to make way for a (much ballyhoo'd) intergalactic traffic interchange/face.
So, another night and the aliens still haven't taken over, that's a relief. I have been worrying about the consequences of this for PB; if we have an imposed world government then betting opportunities could be massively reduced. I hope Robert has contingency plans in place.
You are too late. Do NOT attempt to adjust your computer. Resistance is futile!
PB was taken over LONG ago by sinister alien forces. And I do NOT mean the Lib Dem executive! Mike is being held hostage on ice - literal, in cryogenic suspension - in order to compel Robert to serve the invaders.
As for your bets, they are being used to finance a generous pension scheme for highly-skilled servant-savant robots who have given eons of faithful service to the aliens. The paltry winnings that you now receive sporadically are merely Ponzi-scheme payouts designed to keep you satisfied, and clueless.
Until that is your alien overlords are ready to assert total domination sans human participation. At which point earth will be vaporized to make way for a (much ballyhoo'd) intergalactic traffic interchange/face.
So, another night and the aliens still haven't taken over, that's a relief. I have been worrying about the consequences of this for PB; if we have an imposed world government then betting opportunities could be massively reduced. I hope Robert has contingency plans in place.
You are too late. Do NOT attempt to adjust your computer. Resistance is futile!
PB was taken over LONG ago by sinister alien forces. And I do NOT mean the Lib Dem executive! Mike is being held hostage on ice - literal, in cryogenic suspension - in order to compel Robert to serve the invaders.
As for your bets, they are being used to finance a generous pension scheme for highly-skilled servant-savant robots who have given eons of faithful service to the aliens. The paltry winnings that you now receive sporadically are merely Ponzi-scheme payouts designed to keep you satisfied, and clueless.
Until that is your alien overlords are ready to assert total domination sans human participation. At which point earth will be vaporized to make way for a (much ballyhoo'd) intergalactic traffic interchange/face.
Touchingly named New Shepard's Bush Roundabout.
When did you make this Discovery?
42 minutes ago?
It was a very obscure Trekkie pun, Your Venerable Cheerful Majesty!
So, another night and the aliens still haven't taken over, that's a relief. I have been worrying about the consequences of this for PB; if we have an imposed world government then betting opportunities could be massively reduced. I hope Robert has contingency plans in place.
Well you say that but of course believing in aliens is related by marriage to believing in other supernatural beings, one set of which includes predestination as a concept.
Speaking of local elections, in Pittsburgh PA, Democratic voters just rejected the incumbent two-term incumbent Mayor Bill Peduto, and instead have nominated Black state representative Ed Gainey. Which appears tantamount to election, as no Republican filed. Though Gainey may face challenger in the fall election, possibly another Democrat defeated Tuesday, Tony Moreno but he ran a distant third in the primary.
A friend of mine is in the Halle Choir in Manchester. They have been kyboshed by the abrupt change in guidance at the weekend which bans amateur singing in groups of more than 6.
The Halle Choir (well 35 of them) was booked to perform at a covid-secure venue this week. And now they can't. Because danger. Her thread is quite funny though - she posts from Old Trafford where 10,000 people were engaged on amateur singing. And telling a colleague that she's not allowed to sing in a Covid secure venue, her college splutters "Buy, but the Trafford Centre's open?"
So apparently we are yet again back into the world of illogical arbitrary decisions made at the last minute with no-one responsible.
Have just seen the news about John Swinney and Humza Yousaf.
Boy, Nicola Sturgeon is really determined to utterly destroy education in Scotland, isn’t she?
How else do you get a majority for independence?
A reckless strategy. If they can’t read the question, they might choose the wrong box.
Why do you think that the word "yes" is so prominent in their literature? Scots youngsters may not be able to read much but that word at least is familiar to them. The strategic cunning of the SNP gang (government seems too grand a term for those who positively encourage mob rule on the streets of Glasgow one day and then condemn a gathering of football supporters who indulge in the hate crime of carrying the Union Jack the next) is not to be underestimated.
But I looked in alarm at the BBC website thinking that Yousaf had been moved from Justice (thank the lord) to Education (oh my Lord). Nothing showing there yet. What had you seen?
Meanwhile on topic, I don't think the Conservatives are unpopular enough for the Lib Dems to pull off what would be standard fayre midterm by-election win. The circumstances are different at the moment and the 45% Leave - 55% Remain vote from 5 years ago doesn't fill me with confidence that this is other than a Conservative win.
If the alleged Indian variant rips through the country (it won't) then it might be different but obviously no opposition politician would be hoping for such a thing.
My gut is that it'll be Witney again, with the LibDems achieving a solid second place - something like 50-42.
That being said, if I were to be wrong, I think it's not likely I'd be wrong because the LibDems outperform.
The local elections would suggest that the Conservatives are having something of a mid-term dip with their stump of 2019 Remain voters who didn't already go LibDem then. But they are not suffering at all with their Leave voting ones. That it was 45% leave suggests the Tories have a fairly solid vote that is still with them. The LibDems already got a 13.3% Remain uplift in 2019, the Tories a 5.5% drop - and Labour lost over a third of its 2017 vote. The LibDems will throw the kitchen sink at it - but so will the Tories. And the Tories have 366 MPs who can take a short trip out from Westminster to help campaign - the LibDems have 11.
Some of the Tory MPs may not be that welcome.... JRM was conspicuous in his absence in GE2019, and I am not sure J Mercer is exactly on message
So, another night and the aliens still haven't taken over, that's a relief. I have been worrying about the consequences of this for PB; if we have an imposed world government then betting opportunities could be massively reduced. I hope Robert has contingency plans in place.
You are too late. Do NOT attempt to adjust your computer. Resistance is futile!
PB was taken over LONG ago by sinister alien forces. And I do NOT mean the Lib Dem executive! Mike is being held hostage on ice - literal, in cryogenic suspension - in order to compel Robert to serve the invaders.
As for your bets, they are being used to finance a generous pension scheme for highly-skilled servant-savant robots who have given eons of faithful service to the aliens. The paltry winnings that you now receive sporadically are merely Ponzi-scheme payouts designed to keep you satisfied, and clueless.
Until that is your alien overlords are ready to assert total domination sans human participation. At which point earth will be vaporized to make way for a (much ballyhoo'd) intergalactic traffic interchange/face.
Touchingly named New Shepard's Bush Roundabout.
When did you make this Discovery?
42 minutes ago?
It was a very obscure Trekkie pun, Your Venerable Cheerful Majesty!
Have just seen the news about John Swinney and Humza Yousaf.
Boy, Nicola Sturgeon is really determined to utterly destroy education in Scotland, isn’t she?
How else do you get a majority for independence?
A reckless strategy. If they can’t read the question, they might choose the wrong box.
Why do you think that the word "yes" is so prominent in their literature? Scots youngsters may not be able to read much but that word at least is familiar to them. The strategic cunning of the SNP gang (government seems too grand a term for those who positively encourage mob rule on the streets of Glasgow one day and then condemn a gathering of football supporters who indulge in the hate crime of carrying the Union Jack the next) is not to be underestimated.
But I looked in alarm at the BBC website thinking that Yousaf had been moved from Justice (thank the lord) to Education (oh my Lord). Nothing showing there yet. What had you seen?
Dominic Cummings is hatching a cunning plan to dish the Nats by reversing the Yes and No positions with the question: Should Scotland remain part of the United Kingdom?
A friend of mine is in the Halle Choir in Manchester. They have been kyboshed by the abrupt change in guidance at the weekend which bans amateur singing in groups of more than 6.
The Halle Choir (well 35 of them) was booked to perform at a covid-secure venue this week. And now they can't. Because danger. Her thread is quite funny though - she posts from Old Trafford where 10,000 people were engaged on amateur singing. And telling a colleague that she's not allowed to sing in a Covid secure venue, her college splutters "Buy, but the Trafford Centre's open?"
So apparently we are yet again back into the world of illogical arbitrary decisions made at the last minute with no-one responsible.
I have to say that I had tears in my eyes last night driving home when 10k real live fans welcomed the United team out onto the pitch at OT. They have done their best but sport is really nothing without fans and we have missed this terribly.
But is the "Covid-Secure" venue indoors? If it is in the Trafford Centre itself that is a difference.
So, another night and the aliens still haven't taken over, that's a relief. I have been worrying about the consequences of this for PB; if we have an imposed world government then betting opportunities could be massively reduced. I hope Robert has contingency plans in place.
Well you say that but of course believing in aliens is related by marriage to believing in other supernatural beings, one set of which includes predestination as a concept.
Have just seen the news about John Swinney and Humza Yousaf.
Boy, Nicola Sturgeon is really determined to utterly destroy education in Scotland, isn’t she?
How else do you get a majority for independence?
A reckless strategy. If they can’t read the question, they might choose the wrong box.
Why do you think that the word "yes" is so prominent in their literature? Scots youngsters may not be able to read much but that word at least is familiar to them. The strategic cunning of the SNP gang (government seems too grand a term for those who positively encourage mob rule on the streets of Glasgow one day and then condemn a gathering of football supporters who indulge in the hate crime of carrying the Union Jack the next) is not to be underestimated.
But I looked in alarm at the BBC website thinking that Yousaf had been moved from Justice (thank the lord) to Education (oh my Lord). Nothing showing there yet. What had you seen?
It was a comment earlier on on this very forum, but it may have been a joke, because on checking I’m finding the same as you. Apologies if I raised your hopes.
I’m assuming Robertson will be brought in somewhere, but equally Yousaf’s arselicking is likely to see him promoted. I’m afraid Scotland is unlikely to have seen the last of him.
Now that you are breaking cover can you explain what those tunnels under London were for? The credibility of the cover story that they were for tube trains wore thin a long time ago.
A friend of mine is in the Halle Choir in Manchester. They have been kyboshed by the abrupt change in guidance at the weekend which bans amateur singing in groups of more than 6.
The Halle Choir (well 35 of them) was booked to perform at a covid-secure venue this week. And now they can't. Because danger. Her thread is quite funny though - she posts from Old Trafford where 10,000 people were engaged on amateur singing. And telling a colleague that she's not allowed to sing in a Covid secure venue, her college splutters "Buy, but the Trafford Centre's open?"
So apparently we are yet again back into the world of illogical arbitrary decisions made at the last minute with no-one responsible.
I have to say that I had tears in my eyes last night driving home when 10k real live fans welcomed the United team out onto the pitch at OT. They have done their best but sport is really nothing without fans and we have missed this terribly.
But is the "Covid-Secure" venue indoors? If it is in the Trafford Centre itself that is a difference.
It was a tough game at Stamford Bridge last night, but having the fans there really energised the home team. I am really looking forward to Sunday, and giving Spurs a hard time.
A friend of mine is in the Halle Choir in Manchester. They have been kyboshed by the abrupt change in guidance at the weekend which bans amateur singing in groups of more than 6.
The Halle Choir (well 35 of them) was booked to perform at a covid-secure venue this week. And now they can't. Because danger. Her thread is quite funny though - she posts from Old Trafford where 10,000 people were engaged on amateur singing. And telling a colleague that she's not allowed to sing in a Covid secure venue, her college splutters "Buy, but the Trafford Centre's open?"
So apparently we are yet again back into the world of illogical arbitrary decisions made at the last minute with no-one responsible.
I have to say that I had tears in my eyes last night driving home when 10k real live fans welcomed the United team out onto the pitch at OT. They have done their best but sport is really nothing without fans and we have missed this terribly.
But is the "Covid-Secure" venue indoors? If it is in the Trafford Centre itself that is a difference.
Yes it's indoors. As is shopping. And theatre and cinema. Safe to go to an indoor venue and watch a band but not a choir apparently. Again, stupid arbitrary rules of the same kind that pushed so many people to ignore the rules completely last year.
If there is an issue in one area then don't lift restrictions as Scotland has done with Glasgow and Moray. What bugs me is an illiberal arbitrary dictatorship that makes unthinking rules changes up on the spot.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
“ At an annual rate of 1.5% the CPI measure is nearing the Bank of England's target of 2% and economists forecast it will smash past that when the next update is delivered in a month's time”
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Some inflation to deflate the debt accumulated (and not just by governments who can print it) during Covid really might not be the worst thing. We have been undershooting inflation targets for a long time.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
It’s the wrong kind of inflation though.
Fuel, clothes, utilities, building materials etc.
I don’t see wages rising.
That's not necessarily the "wrong kind". We had fuel prices artificially depressed due to the pandemic which caused inflation to collapse, they're now getting back to what they were a couple of years ago. I filled my car on the weekend and it was the most I'd paid for fuel - since about 18 months ago. Yes its a rise year-on-year, but its a return to the status quo ante pre-pandemic, not starting a vicious cycle of increasing prices.
A friend of mine is in the Halle Choir in Manchester. They have been kyboshed by the abrupt change in guidance at the weekend which bans amateur singing in groups of more than 6.
The Halle Choir (well 35 of them) was booked to perform at a covid-secure venue this week. And now they can't. Because danger. Her thread is quite funny though - she posts from Old Trafford where 10,000 people were engaged on amateur singing. And telling a colleague that she's not allowed to sing in a Covid secure venue, her college splutters "Buy, but the Trafford Centre's open?"
So apparently we are yet again back into the world of illogical arbitrary decisions made at the last minute with no-one responsible.
I have to say that I had tears in my eyes last night driving home when 10k real live fans welcomed the United team out onto the pitch at OT. They have done their best but sport is really nothing without fans and we have missed this terribly.
But is the "Covid-Secure" venue indoors? If it is in the Trafford Centre itself that is a difference.
Yes it's indoors. As is shopping. And theatre and cinema. Safe to go to an indoor venue and watch a band but not a choir apparently. Again, stupid arbitrary rules of the same kind that pushed so many people to ignore the rules completely last year.
If there is an issue in one area then don't lift restrictions as Scotland has done with Glasgow and Moray. What bugs me is an illiberal arbitrary dictatorship that makes unthinking rules changes up on the spot.
The theory is that singing is very effective at creating aerosols that can transmit disease.
I’ve no idea if it’s right or not, but it isn’t arbitrary or illogical
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Worrying
Especially now we all understand exponential growth a lot better ;’
The inflation rate is the rate of exponential growth, not the thing that grows exponentially.
In order to get exponential growth you need something where the amount it increases depends on how much of the quantity there was to start with (so in this case the prices).
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Some inflation to deflate the debt accumulated (and not just by governments who can print it) during Covid really might not be the worst thing. We have been undershooting inflation targets for a long time.
I'm not sure the voters would nod and agree if Rishi tells them that...
One thing worth remembering in year-on-year figures is we're at the weird point where we have both the start and the end of the pandemic messing with the figures.
March21 vs March20 was comparing us in lockdown this year with rising concerns then only a week of lockdown in 2020. April21 vs April20 is comparing an easing of lockdown this year versus the depths of lockdown last year.
So a 0.8% increase in inflation to a rate of inflation still below target is surprisingly puny compared to what it could have been. Fuel has risen to January 2020 levels, not something we'd normally consider to be inflation 16 months after January 2020. Its artificial fake inflation.
Gadi Schwartz @GadiNBC · 24m With Obama weighing in today & Rubio’s statements this weekend, you’ve got to hope the issue of UAPs has finally transcended questions of political partisanship. Whatever they are, they seem to represent an inflection point for society as a whole.
There’s been an assumption even from the likes of Lue Elizondo that the June report to Congress won’t reveal too much new but will be the start of a longer process that might reveal a lot in time. Could be Elizondo is wrong and that the Biden government has decided to rip the plaster off. Hard to think of a more obvious proxy to float something out there for Biden than Obama.
Let’s say “something”, whatever the “something” is, has been kept secret for many years and you’re right that there’s moves afoot to reveal it. The way I see it there’s two reasons for that:
1) It has been concluded it’s the right thing to do; or
2) It has been assessed that it’s about to come out anyway in an uncontrolled fashion (e.g. increased use of better drones or increased volumes of private owned space assets).
1 seems unlikely so I think you’re left with 2, especially if it actually is extraterrestrial objects. That would mean no mad rush to reveal EVERYTHING in one go, but a sense it does need to come out in a controlled fashion in the next year or two.
I'd go with 2 (of the two options)
See all the new drone footage, from around the world, apparently showing exactly the same thing: small weird aircraft, like silvery bullets the size of a smartcar, capable of incredible speeds - 9,000mph or even 14,000mph
Drone cameras - a new technology - may be capturing so much footage of UAPs that is no longer credibly deniable or debunkable
That would move the USG to control the narrative and get the info out first, so they look like they are "in command" of the situation
Also plausible
This is the footage from Utah. No one has successfully debunked it
It's a fast moving flying object that he thinks is travelling at 9,000 miles per hour.
But which I'd reckon is actually travelling at about a quarter of that speed.
Why? Because at 9,000 miles per hour it would be compressing a lot of the air it hits. The wave it would generate as it went by (and the air jumped back into place) would result in trees moving an awful lot.
My guess is that it's a grey coloured XQ-58A (which is the US government's fighter drone) travelling at a supersonic speed.
lol
Lol?
If an object passes through air at a high speed, it compresses the air that hits the leading edges.
The faster it's travelling, the more compression there is.
And the more the air spring back once the object has passed.
Something travelling at 9,000 miles an hour (if it's the size they say it is) would be compressing an awful lot of air. So, either
(a) it's not the size they say it is (b) it's not going at the speed they say it is or (c) it's able to avoid compressing the air it travels through
My money is on (a) and/or (b).
Edit to add: watch the footage again. The trees don't seem to even register its presence. Doesn't that strike you as strange?
Yes. That’s the point Robert. The last Director of National Intelligence has said they have recorded objects breaking the sound barrier with no sonic boom.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Some inflation to deflate the debt accumulated (and not just by governments who can print it) during Covid really might not be the worst thing. We have been undershooting inflation targets for a long time.
My limited understanding of economics is that printing money is a very good way to get inflation in the first place. For those who feel that using gold or silver gets round this have a look at what happened to the Spanish economy after the discovery of vast quantities of silver from South America.
One thing worth remembering in year-on-year figures is we're at the weird point where we have both the start and the end of the pandemic messing with the figures.
March21 vs March20 was comparing us in lockdown this year with rising concerns then only a week of lockdown in 2020. April21 vs April20 is comparing an easing of lockdown this year versus the depths of lockdown last year.
So a 0.8% increase in inflation is surprisingly puny compared to what it could have been. Fuel has risen to January 2020 levels, not something we'd normally consider to be inflation 16 months after January 2020. Its artificial fake inflation.
I think we’ll only be able to say that in retrospect. The economy is certainly in a weird place right now - US used car prices are up 10% and anecdotally, it’s a similar story here;
One thing worth remembering in year-on-year figures is we're at the weird point where we have both the start and the end of the pandemic messing with the figures.
March21 vs March20 was comparing us in lockdown this year with rising concerns then only a week of lockdown in 2020. April21 vs April20 is comparing an easing of lockdown this year versus the depths of lockdown last year.
So a 0.8% increase in inflation is surprisingly puny compared to what it could have been. Fuel has risen to January 2020 levels, not something we'd normally consider to be inflation 16 months after January 2020. Its artificial fake inflation.
I think we’ll only be able to say that in retrospect. The economy is certainly in a weird place right now - US used car prices are up 10% and anecdotally, it’s a similar story here;
It could all be transitory, or it could be very real and long term. The markets are starting to price in long-term inflation.
There may be some long-term inflation coming and some of that may be a good thing, the lack of any inflation has been a bad thing. Moderate inflation is good, not deflation or stagflation.
But fuel prices returning to the levels they were at 16 months ago is in no real sense of the word what we would normally call inflation. It is a reversion of the temporary deflation.
One thing worth remembering in year-on-year figures is we're at the weird point where we have both the start and the end of the pandemic messing with the figures.
March21 vs March20 was comparing us in lockdown this year with rising concerns then only a week of lockdown in 2020. April21 vs April20 is comparing an easing of lockdown this year versus the depths of lockdown last year.
So a 0.8% increase in inflation is surprisingly puny compared to what it could have been. Fuel has risen to January 2020 levels, not something we'd normally consider to be inflation 16 months after January 2020. Its artificial fake inflation.
I think we’ll only be able to say that in retrospect. The economy is certainly in a weird place right now - US used car prices are up 10% and anecdotally, it’s a similar story here;
It could all be transitory, or it could be very real and long term. The markets are starting to price in long-term inflation.
Several holiday let owners here have told me they've increased their prices to enjoy the sudden boom in demand. The hotels suddenly filled yesterday, and there are holiday coaches trying to navigate the steep hills for the first time in over a year. Leon's London weather must be very bad to have driven so many on a UK holiday in mid May.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
It’s the wrong kind of inflation though.
Fuel, clothes, utilities, building materials etc.
I don’t see wages rising.
Isn't pay increase a bit of a lagging thing? Once people notice how heavy their bills are they will start to push for more pay?
A mini boom in inflation would have a very interesting and unpredictable impact on politics and public opinion I think. It's probably a bit too early for it to affect the A&C bi-election, but worth keeping an eye on. It would see a big shift in net wealth from households, who on a net basis have been saving at Japanese levels since the start of the pandemic, and government, which has been spending like never before.
Inflation + rapid devaluation of GBP = reduction in real value of government debt but squeezes spending power of the cash rich middle class.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
It’s the wrong kind of inflation though.
Fuel, clothes, utilities.
I don’t see wages rising.
In Construction wages are increasing very quickly
There are quite a few problems with.materiel and these shortages are causing problems and are inflationary. Cement is a big issue aiui
Argh! The media is so useless sometimes. The current Sky Breakfast host is much better than Kay Burley but still.
Scientist "I would urge everyone who hasn't been vaccinated who is eligible to come forward and get vaccinated" Host "But the problem is the virus can spread faster than we can vaccinate people"
No! We've already vaccinated the majority of the population and are vaccinating ~3.5 million people per week, half a million per day on average. The virus isn't infecting and can't infect now realistically half a million people per day. I don't think at any stage even at the peak half a million people per day have been getting infected.
A friend of mine is in the Halle Choir in Manchester. They have been kyboshed by the abrupt change in guidance at the weekend which bans amateur singing in groups of more than 6.
The Halle Choir (well 35 of them) was booked to perform at a covid-secure venue this week. And now they can't. Because danger. Her thread is quite funny though - she posts from Old Trafford where 10,000 people were engaged on amateur singing. And telling a colleague that she's not allowed to sing in a Covid secure venue, her college splutters "Buy, but the Trafford Centre's open?"
So apparently we are yet again back into the world of illogical arbitrary decisions made at the last minute with no-one responsible.
I have to say that I had tears in my eyes last night driving home when 10k real live fans welcomed the United team out onto the pitch at OT. They have done their best but sport is really nothing without fans and we have missed this terribly.
But is the "Covid-Secure" venue indoors? If it is in the Trafford Centre itself that is a difference.
Yes it's indoors. As is shopping. And theatre and cinema. Safe to go to an indoor venue and watch a band but not a choir apparently. Again, stupid arbitrary rules of the same kind that pushed so many people to ignore the rules completely last year.
If there is an issue in one area then don't lift restrictions as Scotland has done with Glasgow and Moray. What bugs me is an illiberal arbitrary dictatorship that makes unthinking rules changes up on the spot.
The theory is that singing is very effective at creating aerosols that can transmit disease.
I’ve no idea if it’s right or not, but it isn’t arbitrary or illogical
So why is singing allowed indoors then? If the 170 year old Halle Choir was professional it would be allowed. As they aren't paid, it's not safe and not allowed
A band. In a Covid secure venue. With the socially distanced crowd singing along. Safe and legal. Do they not have aerosols? Swap the band out for a choir. Illegal. Unsafe. Risk of aerosols.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
It’s the wrong kind of inflation though.
Fuel, clothes, utilities.
I don’t see wages rising.
In Construction wages are increasing very quickly
Both Labour and materials in short supply.
Looks like Barber boom revisited.
Its mainly being driven by the demand for Building works from the Private Sector, the number of new projects is incredible. The Public Sector is still very quiet.
I don't think it's a very good idea for prosecutions to get political. Hunting people in the courts because they are your political opponents is a Very Bad Thing.
On the other hand, it does look like the Trump Organization has played fast and loose, and may well have broken a great number of laws. (Declaring different values for buildings between the tax authority and your mortgage lender is a dangerous game: you're either committing tax fraud or mail fraud.)
Not prosecuting crimes because the alleged perpetrator is a very important person is also a Very Bad Thing. The publicity seeking tendencies of the US prosecutorial system is perhaps more the problem ?
Having elected and activist prosecutors and judges is the issue.
The NY Attourney General is an elected Democrat politician, as opposed to the civil servant she would be in the UK.
A mini boom in inflation would have a very interesting and unpredictable impact on politics and public opinion I think. It's probably a bit too early for it to affect the A&C bi-election, but worth keeping an eye on. It would see a big shift in net wealth from households, who on a net basis have been saving at Japanese levels since the start of the pandemic, and government, which has been spending like never before.
Inflation + rapid devaluation of GBP = reduction in real value of government debt but squeezes spending power of the cash rich middle class.
GBP is appreciating not devaluing though.
£1 = £1.42 which is the highest in three years and takes us back to about the same level as it was before the Brexit referendum. The collapse in sterling seen in the aftermath of the referendum has been reversed post-transition.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
I haven't looked at the ONS report but it's an annual figure which means last April - when we had just gone into lockdown, and no-one had worked out how to do business in a lockdown - has just dropped off. With a a monthly growth rate of 2.1% in March this makes sense. Hope it's just a bit choppy until the summer.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Some inflation to deflate the debt accumulated (and not just by governments who can print it) during Covid really might not be the worst thing. We have been undershooting inflation targets for a long time.
My limited understanding of economics is that printing money is a very good way to get inflation in the first place. For those who feel that using gold or silver gets round this have a look at what happened to the Spanish economy after the discovery of vast quantities of silver from South America.
Gold - "the corpse of value"
Goto Dengo - a great fictional character, given a brilliant line.
A friend of mine is in the Halle Choir in Manchester. They have been kyboshed by the abrupt change in guidance at the weekend which bans amateur singing in groups of more than 6.
The Halle Choir (well 35 of them) was booked to perform at a covid-secure venue this week. And now they can't. Because danger. Her thread is quite funny though - she posts from Old Trafford where 10,000 people were engaged on amateur singing. And telling a colleague that she's not allowed to sing in a Covid secure venue, her college splutters "Buy, but the Trafford Centre's open?"
So apparently we are yet again back into the world of illogical arbitrary decisions made at the last minute with no-one responsible.
I have to say that I had tears in my eyes last night driving home when 10k real live fans welcomed the United team out onto the pitch at OT. They have done their best but sport is really nothing without fans and we have missed this terribly.
But is the "Covid-Secure" venue indoors? If it is in the Trafford Centre itself that is a difference.
Yes it's indoors. As is shopping. And theatre and cinema. Safe to go to an indoor venue and watch a band but not a choir apparently. Again, stupid arbitrary rules of the same kind that pushed so many people to ignore the rules completely last year.
If there is an issue in one area then don't lift restrictions as Scotland has done with Glasgow and Moray. What bugs me is an illiberal arbitrary dictatorship that makes unthinking rules changes up on the spot.
The theory is that singing is very effective at creating aerosols that can transmit disease.
I’ve no idea if it’s right or not, but it isn’t arbitrary or illogical
So why is singing allowed indoors then? If the 170 year old Halle Choir was professional it would be allowed. As they aren't paid, it's not safe and not allowed
A band. In a Covid secure venue. With the socially distanced crowd singing along. Safe and legal. Do they not have aerosols? Swap the band out for a choir. Illegal. Unsafe. Risk of aerosols.
Risk of arseholes more like. Your government.
People are allowed to do their work which is why there's been professional stuff allowed before fun stuff all along unlocking - and I think the advice is that singing along to bands is not recommended, isn't it?
Ultimately you're doing the same stupid thing the media did a year ago. Until all of lockdown is lifted there's always going to be a limit somewhere, wherever the line is drawn there will always be edge cases either side of the line that appear illogical.
Hopefully we can get to 21 June soon and there is no line anywhere anymore and all this stupid whatabouterisms are confined to history.
I don't think it's a very good idea for prosecutions to get political. Hunting people in the courts because they are your political opponents is a Very Bad Thing.
On the other hand, it does look like the Trump Organization has played fast and loose, and may well have broken a great number of laws. (Declaring different values for buildings between the tax authority and your mortgage lender is a dangerous game: you're either committing tax fraud or mail fraud.)
Not prosecuting crimes because the alleged perpetrator is a very important person is also a Very Bad Thing. The publicity seeking tendencies of the US prosecutorial system is perhaps more the problem ?
Having elected and activist prosecutors and judges is the issue.
The NY Attourney General is an elected Democrat politician, as opposed to the civil servant she would be in the UK.
You sure about that? AIUI the Attorney General in UK is a member of the Cabinet. Current one is on maternity leave IIRC.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
It’s the wrong kind of inflation though.
Fuel, clothes, utilities.
I don’t see wages rising.
In Construction wages are increasing very quickly
Both Labour and materials in short supply.
Looks like Barber boom revisited.
Its mainly being driven by the demand for Building works from the Private Sector, the number of new projects is incredible. The Public Sector is still very quiet.
The extent of roadworks in London is extraordinary
Most of the footage looks deliberately poor, and the objects depicted are likely smaller and closer than you’d think - perhaps toy quadrotor drones with the blades photoshopped out? Probably something with camera speed too, it’s easy to time-lapse a scene then play it back much faster.
The lack of air movement is the giveaway, there’s no way the laws of physics don’t give a massive sonic boom as a reaction to anything with significant mass travelling as fast as is claimed.
Also remember that the US had the Mach 3 A-12 and SR-71 planes as long ago as 1967. That program was only declassified decades later.
Anything from outside Earth must also have entered the atmosphere, with the usual problems of friction and heating that humans have to deal with in space vehicles.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
It’s the wrong kind of inflation though.
Fuel, clothes, utilities.
I don’t see wages rising.
In Construction wages are increasing very quickly
There are quite a few problems with.materiel and these shortages are causing problems and are inflationary. Cement is a big issue aiui
So, another night and the aliens still haven't taken over, that's a relief. I have been worrying about the consequences of this for PB; if we have an imposed world government then betting opportunities could be massively reduced. I hope Robert has contingency plans in place.
For some bizarre reason, they only want the Americans.
All this talk of how they can fly at 9000mph and none about how they got here across interstellar space is weird.
At the moment, I've learned that they fly at Mach 11+ in the lower atmosphere, without a shockwave, sonic boom, turning the air into plasma, or interacting with the air in any way, except they also for some reason use the air to bank (without touching or affecting it). And that simple radar still bounces off of it, even though physical air somehow doesn't.
The explanation for how it is affected by air without affecting it in any way is simply that we don't understand it. If Newton's Laws don't apply (the action of the air on the vehicle is not met by action of the vehicle on the air), then why do they bother to bank at all? Why can't they simply stop instantly without using the air?
And why doesn't a species with the technology to canter through Newton's Laws and fluid hydrodynamics (a tech level difference further than us from amoebas) have stealth technology against radar that would be only a little bit better than ours?
I don't think it's a very good idea for prosecutions to get political. Hunting people in the courts because they are your political opponents is a Very Bad Thing.
On the other hand, it does look like the Trump Organization has played fast and loose, and may well have broken a great number of laws. (Declaring different values for buildings between the tax authority and your mortgage lender is a dangerous game: you're either committing tax fraud or mail fraud.)
Not prosecuting crimes because the alleged perpetrator is a very important person is also a Very Bad Thing. The publicity seeking tendencies of the US prosecutorial system is perhaps more the problem ?
Having elected and activist prosecutors and judges is the issue.
The NY Attourney General is an elected Democrat politician, as opposed to the civil servant she would be in the UK.
You sure about that? AIUI the Attorney General in UK is a member of the Cabinet. Current one is on maternity leave IIRC.
The NY State AG is directly elected to that position.
The UK has an AG for the whole country, appointed by the PM, but the role of investigating and prosecuting would be for the police and DPP in the UK, rather than the AG.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
It’s the wrong kind of inflation though.
Fuel, clothes, utilities.
I don’t see wages rising.
In Construction wages are increasing very quickly
Both Labour and materials in short supply.
Looks like Barber boom revisited.
Its mainly being driven by the demand for Building works from the Private Sector, the number of new projects is incredible. The Public Sector is still very quiet.
The extent of roadworks in London is extraordinary
Perhaps you could have a word and transfer some staff down here. The state of the roads in W Sussex is shameful.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
It’s the wrong kind of inflation though.
Fuel, clothes, utilities, building materials etc.
I don’t see wages rising.
Isn't pay increase a bit of a lagging thing? Once people notice how heavy their bills are they will start to push for more pay?
With less available labour, wages will rise. You push for more pay because you can, not because you need it. It is all a question of relative power. This is why the bosses were so happy to have un/low skilled migration. It weakened the bargaining power of the working class. There will be a lot less of the managers saying “if you don’t like the wages, fuck off. I will have a Pole/Romanian in your job by the end of the day.” The Labour Party never understood what enemies they were making of the people they were supposed to represent by backing unlimited immigration.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
Neil Ferguson says there is a ‘glimmer of hope’ that the Indian variant may not be as transmissible as feared
‘Whilst the variant does appear to have a significant growth advantage, the magnitude of that appears to have dropped with the most recent data’
It looks like returning travellers from India infected their close family who then spread it to unvaccinated people in those areas but it has struggled to find viable hosts elsewhere.
I'd be surprised now if the India variant was wildly different to the Kent variant in terms of transmission or CFR.
All of those doom models failed to take into account real people and real life behaviour of South Asians most of whom exist without understanding the concept of personal space let alone social distancing.
A mini boom in inflation would have a very interesting and unpredictable impact on politics and public opinion I think. It's probably a bit too early for it to affect the A&C bi-election, but worth keeping an eye on. It would see a big shift in net wealth from households, who on a net basis have been saving at Japanese levels since the start of the pandemic, and government, which has been spending like never before.
Inflation + rapid devaluation of GBP = reduction in real value of government debt but squeezes spending power of the cash rich middle class.
GBP is appreciating not devaluing though.
£1 = £1.42 which is the highest in three years and takes us back to about the same level as it was before the Brexit referendum. The collapse in sterling seen in the aftermath of the referendum has been reversed post-transition.
Yep, the pound is soaring at the moment, especially against the USD as the Americans are printing and borrowing massive quantities of money. Most expensive mortgage payment in years got paid this week (I get paid $ but the mortgage is in £).
It is one of my perennial rants that the BBC's news team slavishly follows American news overnight and at weekends.
It’s a cost cutting excercise.
Try Times Radio.. BBC has had its day.. all the good journos are deserting the BBC
Try GB Radio when it arrives.
Times Radio is very thin on research.
Yes but I don't like BBC research as its always slanted towards lack.of diversity in x y z. I am done with the BBC. They don't give shit about retirees .. we were the future once.. now we can fuck off.. BBC4 is under threat now... the only quality station left in its output.
A mini boom in inflation would have a very interesting and unpredictable impact on politics and public opinion I think. It's probably a bit too early for it to affect the A&C bi-election, but worth keeping an eye on. It would see a big shift in net wealth from households, who on a net basis have been saving at Japanese levels since the start of the pandemic, and government, which has been spending like never before.
Inflation + rapid devaluation of GBP = reduction in real value of government debt but squeezes spending power of the cash rich middle class.
GBP is appreciating not devaluing though.
£1 = £1.42 which is the highest in three years and takes us back to about the same level as it was before the Brexit referendum. The collapse in sterling seen in the aftermath of the referendum has been reversed post-transition.
Wow, didn't realise that carrying the Union Jack resulted in police having broken bones and teeth knocked out.
Also apparently makes one expose one’s tiny manhood & shitey drawers, pee on the street and start battering other folk carrying UJs. Heady stuff, this Unionism.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
It’s the wrong kind of inflation though.
Fuel, clothes, utilities, building materials etc.
I don’t see wages rising.
Isn't pay increase a bit of a lagging thing? Once people notice how heavy their bills are they will start to push for more pay?
It's also not true, annual wage growth is running at about 4.5% YoY. Yes, done of that is because a lot of the lower end of the economy is furloughed but it does show that middle income people are seeing pretty decent wage growth even during the pandemic.
I don't think it's a very good idea for prosecutions to get political. Hunting people in the courts because they are your political opponents is a Very Bad Thing.
On the other hand, it does look like the Trump Organization has played fast and loose, and may well have broken a great number of laws. (Declaring different values for buildings between the tax authority and your mortgage lender is a dangerous game: you're either committing tax fraud or mail fraud.)
Not prosecuting crimes because the alleged perpetrator is a very important person is also a Very Bad Thing. The publicity seeking tendencies of the US prosecutorial system is perhaps more the problem ?
All you need is to combine political prosecution with immunity while in office. Then the fun really starts...
{Gaius Marius, Sulla, Pompey and Julius Caesar enter the chat}
Most of the footage looks deliberately poor, and the objects depicted are likely smaller and closer than you’d think - perhaps toy quadrotor drones with the blades photoshopped out? Probably something with camera speed too, it’s easy to time-lapse a scene then play it back much faster.
The lack of air movement is the giveaway, there’s no way the laws of physics don’t give a massive sonic boom as a reaction to anything with significant mass travelling as fast as is claimed.
Also remember that the US had the Mach 3 A-12 and SR-71 planes as long ago as 1967. That program was only declassified decades later.
Anything from outside Earth must also have entered the atmosphere, with the usual problems of friction and heating that humans have to deal with in space vehicles.
Neil Ferguson says there is a ‘glimmer of hope’ that the Indian variant may not be as transmissible as feared
‘Whilst the variant does appear to have a significant growth advantage, the magnitude of that appears to have dropped with the most recent data’
As I and others speculated it may have been an artifact of who it was infecting at the start - i.e. unvaccinated folk in close proximity. Thus appearing to be more transmissable as against the background of everything else, but once it tried to spread to the wider population, hitting hordes of the vaccinated and stopping. Get your vaccination folks. It works.
One thing worth remembering in year-on-year figures is we're at the weird point where we have both the start and the end of the pandemic messing with the figures.
March21 vs March20 was comparing us in lockdown this year with rising concerns then only a week of lockdown in 2020. April21 vs April20 is comparing an easing of lockdown this year versus the depths of lockdown last year.
So a 0.8% increase in inflation is surprisingly puny compared to what it could have been. Fuel has risen to January 2020 levels, not something we'd normally consider to be inflation 16 months after January 2020. Its artificial fake inflation.
I think we’ll only be able to say that in retrospect. The economy is certainly in a weird place right now - US used car prices are up 10% and anecdotally, it’s a similar story here;
It could all be transitory, or it could be very real and long term. The markets are starting to price in long-term inflation.
AIUI the used car sales spike is caused mostly by people in cities not wanting to use public transport during the pandemic. It’s one of many related changes, such as working from home patterns, that we don’t know whether it will, or how long it might take, to unwind.
One thing worth remembering in year-on-year figures is we're at the weird point where we have both the start and the end of the pandemic messing with the figures.
March21 vs March20 was comparing us in lockdown this year with rising concerns then only a week of lockdown in 2020. April21 vs April20 is comparing an easing of lockdown this year versus the depths of lockdown last year.
So a 0.8% increase in inflation is surprisingly puny compared to what it could have been. Fuel has risen to January 2020 levels, not something we'd normally consider to be inflation 16 months after January 2020. Its artificial fake inflation.
I think we’ll only be able to say that in retrospect. The economy is certainly in a weird place right now - US used car prices are up 10% and anecdotally, it’s a similar story here;
It could all be transitory, or it could be very real and long term. The markets are starting to price in long-term inflation.
There may be some long-term inflation coming and some of that may be a good thing, the lack of any inflation has been a bad thing. Moderate inflation is good, not deflation or stagflation.
But fuel prices returning to the levels they were at 16 months ago is in no real sense of the word what we would normally call inflation. It is a reversion of the temporary deflation.
You told me some weeks ago that increase in M3 is not inflationary and modern economic theory had debunked my economic model from the 1970s/80s.
Now you are telling me wage/price spirals are good for the economy. You will be telling me next interest rate rises will kick-start a never ending economic boom.
I am liking modern economic theory, it would seem there are no downsides.
A mini boom in inflation would have a very interesting and unpredictable impact on politics and public opinion I think. It's probably a bit too early for it to affect the A&C bi-election, but worth keeping an eye on. It would see a big shift in net wealth from households, who on a net basis have been saving at Japanese levels since the start of the pandemic, and government, which has been spending like never before.
Inflation + rapid devaluation of GBP = reduction in real value of government debt but squeezes spending power of the cash rich middle class.
GBP is appreciating not devaluing though.
£1 = £1.42 which is the highest in three years and takes us back to about the same level as it was before the Brexit referendum. The collapse in sterling seen in the aftermath of the referendum has been reversed post-transition.
Point is GBP will decline if inflation rises significantly. 2 sides of the same coin otherwise we go haywire on the Big Mac scale.
A mini boom in inflation would have a very interesting and unpredictable impact on politics and public opinion I think. It's probably a bit too early for it to affect the A&C bi-election, but worth keeping an eye on. It would see a big shift in net wealth from households, who on a net basis have been saving at Japanese levels since the start of the pandemic, and government, which has been spending like never before.
Inflation + rapid devaluation of GBP = reduction in real value of government debt but squeezes spending power of the cash rich middle class.
GBP is appreciating not devaluing though.
£1 = £1.42 which is the highest in three years and takes us back to about the same level as it was before the Brexit referendum. The collapse in sterling seen in the aftermath of the referendum has been reversed post-transition.
Point is GBP will decline if inflation rises significantly. 2 sides of the same coin otherwise we go haywire on the Big Mac scale.
Or, as has been mentioned, all our other major trading partners get major inflation at the same time.
Most of the footage looks deliberately poor, and the objects depicted are likely smaller and closer than you’d think - perhaps toy quadrotor drones with the blades photoshopped out? Probably something with camera speed too, it’s easy to time-lapse a scene then play it back much faster.
The lack of air movement is the giveaway, there’s no way the laws of physics don’t give a massive sonic boom as a reaction to anything with significant mass travelling as fast as is claimed.
Also remember that the US had the Mach 3 A-12 and SR-71 planes as long ago as 1967. That program was only declassified decades later.
Anything from outside Earth must also have entered the atmosphere, with the usual problems of friction and heating that humans have to deal with in space vehicles.
I haven’t seen the videos so can’t comment on their credibility.
But it was only 150 or so years ago that the debate about population growth in London focused on the practical problem of how the capital was ever going to cope with all the manure from the equally fast growing numbers of horses needed to transport everyone about.
A technology gap of 150 years is nothing in an galactic context; we could be dealing with aliens that are thousands of years ahead, or much more. Discussing what they can or cannot do through the prism of our technology strikes me as being a blind alley.
Neil Ferguson says there is a ‘glimmer of hope’ that the Indian variant may not be as transmissible as feared
‘Whilst the variant does appear to have a significant growth advantage, the magnitude of that appears to have dropped with the most recent data’
As I and others speculated it may have been an artifact of who it was infecting at the start - i.e. unvaccinated folk in close proximity. Thus appearing to be more transmissable as against the background of everything else, but once it tried to spread to the wider population, hitting hordes of the vaccinated and stopping. Get your vaccination folks. It works.
Yup - we have the spike on the 11th.... and then not very much.
We will see more data today, but my guesstimate is that the downward trend will resume.
Breaking: UK annual inflation rate doubles in one month
Now only needs to increase by another third to reach target.
Well given its doubled in one month that may be 2 weeks away! If it were stable at around 1.5 to 2% there is of course no need to worry but this is not stable given the conditions ,not least massive government borrowing and no sign of the deficit coming under control
Indeed. Though we've just been through a long period when inflation has been below target, which has created its own problems. Having a shortish period when inflation is moderately above target, with real terms growth, could be just what the economy needs.
It’s the wrong kind of inflation though.
Fuel, clothes, utilities.
I don’t see wages rising.
In Construction wages are increasing very quickly
Both Labour and materials in short supply.
Looks like Barber boom revisited.
Its mainly being driven by the demand for Building works from the Private Sector, the number of new projects is incredible. The Public Sector is still very quiet.
The extent of roadworks in London is extraordinary
Perhaps you could have a word and transfer some staff down here. The state of the roads in W Sussex is shameful.
I didn’t say they were actually *improving* the roads!
(My current bugbear is they have converted Euston road - one of the major east/west routes from 3 lanes going east to 1 bus/1bike/1car
The car is a massive traffic jam - the other two lanes are empty. Added 10 minutes to journey times
On aliens: if they can visit us they have immensely superior technology. This means they could either hide with ease or just say "Hi" safe in the knowledge we'd be wiped out if we tried anything dickish.
I do think aliens are somewhere, just given the enormity of the universe. But not here.
On aliens: if they can visit us they have immensely superior technology. This means they could either hide with ease or just say "Hi" safe in the knowledge we'd be wiped out if we tried anything dickish.
I do think aliens are somewhere, just given the enormity of the universe. But not here.
Maybe the Earth has simply been someone’s giant ant farm all along, and we are simply catching glimpses of the hand doing some maintenance?
Another sunny day in Cumbria. Breakfast cuppa on the terrace, admiring my newly planted clematis.
I see that the government's determination to betray every group which voted for it is continuing.
I'm doing a temporary terrace next weekend, in anticipation of completing parental probate later this summer. Slabs on the gravel Court.
And got to grips with the soft fruit - mum left me no fewer than SEVEN gooseberry bushes, a red currant, a black currant and a couple of unknown others.
Comments
All this talk of how they can fly at 9000mph and none about how they got here across interstellar space is weird.
Like Gavin Williamson only nastier, stupider and more dishonest.
PB was taken over LONG ago by sinister alien forces. And I do NOT mean the Lib Dem executive! Mike is being held hostage on ice - literal, in cryogenic suspension - in order to compel Robert to serve the invaders.
As for your bets, they are being used to finance a generous pension scheme for highly-skilled servant-savant robots who have given eons of faithful service to the aliens. The paltry winnings that you now receive sporadically are merely Ponzi-scheme payouts designed to keep you satisfied, and clueless.
Until that is your alien overlords are ready to assert total domination sans human participation. At which point earth will be vaporized to make way for a (much ballyhoo'd) intergalactic traffic interchange/face.
Touchingly named New Shepard's Bush Roundabout.
Gainey likely to become Pittsburgh’s first Black mayor; Peduto
concedes in Democratic primary
https://whyy.org/articles/bill-peduto-concedes-to-state-rep
https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2021/05/19/2021-primary-election-results/
The Halle Choir (well 35 of them) was booked to perform at a covid-secure venue this week. And now they can't. Because danger. Her thread is quite funny though - she posts from Old Trafford where 10,000 people were engaged on amateur singing. And telling a colleague that she's not allowed to sing in a Covid secure venue, her college splutters "Buy, but the Trafford Centre's open?"
So apparently we are yet again back into the world of illogical arbitrary decisions made at the last minute with no-one responsible.
But I looked in alarm at the BBC website thinking that Yousaf had been moved from Justice (thank the lord) to Education (oh my Lord). Nothing showing there yet. What had you seen?
The aliens made the mistake of asking a Labour Party member to take them to his leader...
But is the "Covid-Secure" venue indoors? If it is in the Trafford Centre itself that is a difference.
I’m assuming Robertson will be brought in somewhere, but equally Yousaf’s arselicking is likely to see him promoted. I’m afraid Scotland is unlikely to have seen the last of him.
If there is an issue in one area then don't lift restrictions as Scotland has done with Glasgow and Moray. What bugs me is an illiberal arbitrary dictatorship that makes unthinking rules changes up on the spot.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/rate-of-inflation-more-than-doubles-in-just-one-month-to-1-5-12310503
Fuel, clothes, utilities, building materials etc.
I don’t see wages rising.
I’ve no idea if it’s right or not, but it isn’t arbitrary or illogical
The inflation chat reminds me of an ITV segment quite some years ago (early Coalition, I think). It was hilariously poor.
Inflation had risen to a three year high (think it was 3%). The newsreader said, seriously, that prices were rising like never before.
No. Rising exactly the same rate as a few years ago.
It's far from the dumbest thing I've heard on the news but it wasn't exactly brilliant.
In order to get exponential growth you need something where the amount it increases depends on how much of the quantity there was to start with (so in this case the prices).
March21 vs March20 was comparing us in lockdown this year with rising concerns then only a week of lockdown in 2020.
April21 vs April20 is comparing an easing of lockdown this year versus the depths of lockdown last year.
So a 0.8% increase in inflation to a rate of inflation still below target is surprisingly puny compared to what it could have been. Fuel has risen to January 2020 levels, not something we'd normally consider to be inflation 16 months after January 2020. Its artificial fake inflation.
Meanwhile The Sun has picked up on Obama:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/14999570/obama-ufo-seriously-sighting-footage-military-alien/
Looks like Barber boom revisited.
For those who feel that using gold or silver gets round this have a look at what happened to the Spanish economy after the discovery of vast quantities of silver from South America.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=1931753
It could all be transitory, or it could be very real and long term. The markets are starting to price in long-term inflation.
But fuel prices returning to the levels they were at 16 months ago is in no real sense of the word what we would normally call inflation. It is a reversion of the temporary deflation.
Inflation + rapid devaluation of GBP = reduction in real value of government debt but squeezes spending power of the cash rich middle class.
Scientist "I would urge everyone who hasn't been vaccinated who is eligible to come forward and get vaccinated"
Host "But the problem is the virus can spread faster than we can vaccinate people"
No! We've already vaccinated the majority of the population and are vaccinating ~3.5 million people per week, half a million per day on average. The virus isn't infecting and can't infect now realistically half a million people per day. I don't think at any stage even at the peak half a million people per day have been getting infected.
A band. In a Covid secure venue. With the socially distanced crowd singing along. Safe and legal. Do they not have aerosols? Swap the band out for a choir. Illegal. Unsafe. Risk of aerosols.
Risk of arseholes more like. Your government.
The NY Attourney General is an elected Democrat politician, as opposed to the civil servant she would be in the UK.
£1 = £1.42 which is the highest in three years and takes us back to about the same level as it was before the Brexit referendum. The collapse in sterling seen in the aftermath of the referendum has been reversed post-transition.
Goto Dengo - a great fictional character, given a brilliant line.
Ultimately you're doing the same stupid thing the media did a year ago. Until all of lockdown is lifted there's always going to be a limit somewhere, wherever the line is drawn there will always be edge cases either side of the line that appear illogical.
Hopefully we can get to 21 June soon and there is no line anywhere anymore and all this stupid whatabouterisms are confined to history.
Neil Ferguson says there is a ‘glimmer of hope’ that the Indian variant may not be as transmissible as feared
‘Whilst the variant does appear to have a significant growth advantage, the magnitude of that appears to have dropped with the most recent data’
Most of the footage looks deliberately poor, and the objects depicted are likely smaller and closer than you’d think - perhaps toy quadrotor drones with the blades photoshopped out? Probably something with camera speed too, it’s easy to time-lapse a scene then play it back much faster.
The lack of air movement is the giveaway, there’s no way the laws of physics don’t give a massive sonic boom as a reaction to anything with significant mass travelling as fast as is claimed.
Also remember that the US had the Mach 3 A-12 and SR-71 planes as long ago as 1967. That program was only declassified decades later.
Anything from outside Earth must also have entered the atmosphere, with the usual problems of friction and heating that humans have to deal with in space vehicles.
Times Radio is very thin on research.
The explanation for how it is affected by air without affecting it in any way is simply that we don't understand it.
If Newton's Laws don't apply (the action of the air on the vehicle is not met by action of the vehicle on the air), then why do they bother to bank at all? Why can't they simply stop instantly without using the air?
And why doesn't a species with the technology to canter through Newton's Laws and fluid hydrodynamics (a tech level difference further than us from amoebas) have stealth technology against radar that would be only a little bit better than ours?
The UK has an AG for the whole country, appointed by the PM, but the role of investigating and prosecuting would be for the police and DPP in the UK, rather than the AG.
I'd be surprised now if the India variant was wildly different to the Kent variant in terms of transmission or CFR.
All of those doom models failed to take into account real people and real life behaviour of South Asians most of whom exist without understanding the concept of personal space let alone social distancing.
{Gaius Marius, Sulla, Pompey and Julius Caesar enter the chat}
Get your vaccination folks. It works.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/da638d08-b818-11eb-98e3-d1306649ebf7?shareToken=a8e37b74b693a28f257eecba54527967
Now you are telling me wage/price spirals are good for the economy. You will be telling me next interest rate rises will kick-start a never ending economic boom.
I am liking modern economic theory, it would seem there are no downsides.
But it was only 150 or so years ago that the debate about population growth in London focused on the practical problem of how the capital was ever going to cope with all the manure from the equally fast growing numbers of horses needed to transport everyone about.
A technology gap of 150 years is nothing in an galactic context; we could be dealing with aliens that are thousands of years ahead, or much more. Discussing what they can or cannot do through the prism of our technology strikes me as being a blind alley.
We will see more data today, but my guesstimate is that the downward trend will resume.
I see that the government's determination to betray every group which voted for it is continuing.
(My current bugbear is they have converted Euston road - one of the major east/west routes from 3 lanes going east to 1 bus/1bike/1car
The car is a massive traffic jam - the other two lanes are empty. Added 10 minutes to journey times
I do think aliens are somewhere, just given the enormity of the universe. But not here.
And got to grips with the soft fruit - mum left me no fewer than SEVEN gooseberry bushes, a red currant, a black currant and a couple of unknown others.