It's pretty much all change in politics in the UK - certainly for the Tories the old guard are out, and it's long been the case that Labour have ejected the beard folk. The Greens move on a little too, and no doubt the LDs will follow.
Who though are the future stars? I'll suggest two - for the Tories it's Alex Chalk, and for Labour, Matthew Pennycook.
I don't view these as next leader material in either case, but one day. I'm not surprised that I can't name a possible Green star, but I am a little surprised that I can't find a good LD prospect.
With so few seats, it’s a thin pool, made thinner by the LibDem’s obsession with selection by identity.
Daisy Cooper is almost certainly next leader.
Yes Daisy’s next in line. I think she’ll do well, better than Swinson, Cable or Farron (I think Davey’s quietly doing a very good job).
But for dearth of star quality look at the greens. Even the clown show that is Refuk manages to turn out people with bucket loads more charisma than the current green crop, post Lucas.
Sian Berry was fun at college. She was the Entertainments Officer at Trinity JCR. I met my wife at a college disco she organised.
And, I assume Leon is visiting Kentucky to see the auto manufacturing plants there, though he hasn't mentioned that, yet. According to the governor's office, they employ about 100K workers: https://ced.ky.gov/Existing_Industries/Automotive
(Perhaps someone with more knowledge of your statistics than I can say how that median income, and Kentucky car manufacturing jobs compares to the UK.)
The US absolutely does have serious drug and homeless problems. Some states and cities have sensible policies to reduce them; others don't. The Seattle city council, for example, just voted not to arrest open drug users. (It was a close vote, suggesting that reality may be seeping in, even there.)
But the US also has the resources to cope with those problems.
Ok here’s my summary of America. Having been to six states - Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky (and DC) in the last two weeks. I’ve been from the 2nd poorest state to one of the richest. I’ve been from tiny towns to your capital, I’ve been from the beauties of Fallingwater to the horrors of Charleston. WV
America is on the verge of terrible, precipitous, absolute decline, based around the implosion of its urban centres, and this is complexly interlinked with covid, drugs, homelessness - in horribly intractable ways. You also have a racial problem based on white guilt and black resentment which feels insoluble. You teeter on the edge of the abyss. You are Rome in about 380AD
In short: America is fucked
Do you have the resources to deal with this? Absolutely. You have 340m people, basically an entire continent, and large intellectual capacity - not least the most powerful tech companies in the world and, still, many of the best universities
But this is probably the most perilous moment for America since the Civil War. You really are in a bad place. The life expectancy stats do not lie. I don’t need to go to a fucking car factory to change my mind. Thailand has car factories - and a higher life expectancy than America
Sort out your towns and cities. Sort out the drugs. Best of luck
Rishi Sunak's joke as crap as everything else he does.
Yes and the polite laughs showed that.
He’s hardly the laughter guzzler.
Starmer v Sunak v Ed will be a charisma vacuum.
The sad, very sad and disgusting, but 100% true thing is this: Boris Johnson has good comic timing and until recently was able to get away with saying all sorts of things unbecoming to a prime minister as a result. Sunak does not, nor do Braverman, Hunt, Badenoch or any of the others.
He hid in a fridge for goodness sake !!
So not just saying but also doing things that are not Prime Ministerial.
Absolutely so, he’s a twat and I hate him. But he has good comic timing. Other politicians with same skill are thin on the ground but include Jess Phillips, Charles Kennedy, Dennis Skinner, Tony Blair (yes, Tony Blair), William Hague, and Emily Thornberry. I make no claim for their assorted politico-ideological pedigrees, simply that they have good comic timing.
Sunak doesn't have a very clear grasp of the law if he thinks there isn't such a thing as a woman with a penis. Legally people can change gender without the need to change their sex organs.
But Rishi has trouble remembering not to go to parties in lockdowns, and remembering to put his seatbelt on when in a car, so we shouldn't expect too much from him.
Like almost everyone with at least two brain cells to rub together, Rishi Sunak is probably well aware that men have penises and not vaginas, whereas women have vaginas and not penises. If the law says otherwise, the law can f*ck off. What would you do if the law told you to stick your head in the oven?
More interesting is the apparent fact that somebody is destabilising the British government. Now who might that be, and why?
Oh that's easy, it's the Conservative and Unionist Party.
I forgot to add: the administration of the Tory party is also being destabilised.
Different victim, same culprit. You could call it a murder-suicide.
The CCHQ video, the Sunak 1922 video - what next?
Got to wonder whether the Sue Gray and Keir Starmer op will turn out to be a sting. (I wouldn't trust anyone who once ran a pub in Newry, but even they are capable of being successfully stitched up.)
A question for parliamentary and civil service procedure legal eagles: if Sue gets told that discussing working for Keir while she was still a permanent secretary would have got her the sack had anybody known about it - which she may well - where does that leave Keir? As LOTO and a former DPP, he might find it hard to plead ignorance. Surely suborning civil servants to break the rules has got to be considered naughty somewhere along the line.
And, I assume Leon is visiting Kentucky to see the auto manufacturing plants there, though he hasn't mentioned that, yet. According to the governor's office, they employ about 100K workers: https://ced.ky.gov/Existing_Industries/Automotive
(Perhaps someone with more knowledge of your statistics than I can say how that median income, and Kentucky car manufacturing jobs compares to the UK.)
The US absolutely does have serious drug and homeless problems. Some states and cities have sensible policies to reduce them; others don't. The Seattle city council, for example, just voted not to arrest open drug users. (It was a close vote, suggesting that reality may be seeping in, even there.)
But the US also has the resources to cope with those problems.
Ok here’s my summary of America. Having been to six states - Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky (and DC) in the last two weeks. I’ve been from the 2nd poorest state to one of the richest. I’ve been from tiny towns to your capital, I’ve been from the beauties of Fallingwater to the horrors of Charleston. WV
America is on the verge of terrible, precipitous, absolute decline, based around the implosion of its urban centres, and this is complexly interlinked with covid, drugs, homelessness - in horribly intractable ways. You also have a racial problem based on white guilt and black resentment which feels insoluble. You teeter on the edge of the abyss. You are Rome in about 380AD
In short: America is fucked
Do you have the resources to deal with this? Absolutely. You have 340m people, basically an entire continent, and large intellectual capacity - not least the most powerful tech companies in the world and, still, many of the best universities
But this is probably the most perilous moment for America since the Civil War. You really are in a bad place. The life expectancy stats do not lie. I don’t need to go to a fucking car factory to change my mind. Thailand has car factories - and a higher life expectancy than America
Sort out your towns and cities. Sort out the drugs. Best of luck
If they re-elect Trump, American civilisation will be finished. I hope we are ready to capitalise, rather than descend on their coat-tails.
Anyway, on the topic of art and science it’s open studios weekend in 2 weeks’ time and my wife has been hanging up her pieces today, all based in some way on either physics or meteorology, and I get to be the proud husband plying visitors with free wine.
I really like the first one.
I do like the hill triptych. Lake District?
Glen Etive I think.
I once did a photoshoot there with a model dressed up as Tinkerbell (no, don't ask). While we were working a car drove up and six dwarfs got out and gawped at us.
There were no tinkerbells or dwarves when we were there sadly but the light was nice.
Sunak doesn't have a very clear grasp of the law if he thinks there isn't such a thing as a woman with a penis. Legally people can change gender without the need to change their sex organs.
But Rishi has trouble remembering not to go to parties in lockdowns, and remembering to put his seatbelt on when in a car, so we shouldn't expect too much from him.
Like almost everyone with at least two brain cells to rub together, Rishi Sunak is probably well aware that men have penises and not vaginas, whereas women have vaginas and not penises. If the law says otherwise, the law can f*ck off. What would you do if the law told you to stick your head in the oven?
More interesting is the apparent fact that somebody is destabilising the British government. Now who might that be, and why?
Oh that's easy, it's the Conservative and Unionist Party.
I forgot to add: the administration of the Tory party is also being destabilised.
Different victim, same culprit. You could call it a murder-suicide.
The CCHQ video, the Sunak 1922 video - what next?
Got to wonder whether the Sue Gray and Keir Starmer op will turn out to be a sting. (I wouldn't trust anyone who once ran a pub in Newry, but even they are capable of being successfully stitched up.)
A question for parliamentary and civil service procedure legal eagles: if Sue gets told that discussing working for Keir while she was still a permanent secretary would have got her the sack had anybody known about it - which she may well - where does that leave Keir? As LOTO and a former DPP, he might find it hard to plead ignorance. Surely suborning civil servants to break the rules has got to be considered naughty somewhere along the line.
I'm not really sure I'm following this conversation. Is it Sue Gray's fault that Rishi was filmed making shit jokes?
And, I assume Leon is visiting Kentucky to see the auto manufacturing plants there, though he hasn't mentioned that, yet. According to the governor's office, they employ about 100K workers: https://ced.ky.gov/Existing_Industries/Automotive
(Perhaps someone with more knowledge of your statistics than I can say how that median income, and Kentucky car manufacturing jobs compares to the UK.)
The US absolutely does have serious drug and homeless problems. Some states and cities have sensible policies to reduce them; others don't. The Seattle city council, for example, just voted not to arrest open drug users. (It was a close vote, suggesting that reality may be seeping in, even there.)
But the US also has the resources to cope with those problems.
Ok here’s my summary of America. Having been to six states - Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky (and DC) in the last two weeks. I’ve been from the 2nd poorest state to one of the richest. I’ve been from tiny towns to your capital, I’ve been from the beauties of Fallingwater to the horrors of Charleston. WV
America is on the verge of terrible, precipitous, absolute decline, based around the implosion of its urban centres, and this is complexly interlinked with covid, drugs, homelessness - in horribly intractable ways. You also have a racial problem based on white guilt and black resentment which feels insoluble. You teeter on the edge of the abyss. You are Rome in about 380AD
In short: America is fucked
Do you have the resources to deal with this? Absolutely. You have 340m people, basically an entire continent, and large intellectual capacity - not least the most powerful tech companies in the world and, still, many of the best universities
But this is probably the most perilous moment for America since the Civil War. You really are in a bad place. The life expectancy stats do not lie. I don’t need to go to a fucking car factory to change my mind. Thailand has car factories - and a higher life expectancy than America
Sort out your towns and cities. Sort out the drugs. Best of luck
In the small likelihood some non-humans or other, or just unaccountable defence contractors, have something ground-breaking to share, maybe that could help in America's saving.
It reminds me of George Clinton's sketch for 1970's Black America, "The Mothership Connection is here."
Sunak doesn't have a very clear grasp of the law if he thinks there isn't such a thing as a woman with a penis. Legally people can change gender without the need to change their sex organs.
But Rishi has trouble remembering not to go to parties in lockdowns, and remembering to put his seatbelt on when in a car, so we shouldn't expect too much from him.
Like almost everyone with at least two brain cells to rub together, Rishi Sunak is probably well aware that men have penises and not vaginas, whereas women have vaginas and not penises. If the law says otherwise, the law can f*ck off. What would you do if the law told you to stick your head in the oven?
More interesting is the apparent fact that somebody is destabilising the British government. Now who might that be, and why?
Oh that's easy, it's the Conservative and Unionist Party.
I forgot to add: the administration of the Tory party is also being destabilised.
Different victim, same culprit. You could call it a murder-suicide.
The CCHQ video, the Sunak 1922 video - what next?
Got to wonder whether the Sue Gray and Keir Starmer op will turn out to be a sting. (I wouldn't trust anyone who once ran a pub in Newry, but even they are capable of being successfully stitched up.)
A question for parliamentary and civil service procedure legal eagles: if Sue gets told that discussing working for Keir while she was still a permanent secretary would have got her the sack had anybody known about it - which she may well - where does that leave Keir? As LOTO and a former DPP, he might find it hard to plead ignorance. Surely suborning civil servants to break the rules has got to be considered naughty somewhere along the line.
I'm not really sure I'm following this conversation. Is it Sue Gray's fault that Rishi was filmed making shit jokes?
And, I assume Leon is visiting Kentucky to see the auto manufacturing plants there, though he hasn't mentioned that, yet. According to the governor's office, they employ about 100K workers: https://ced.ky.gov/Existing_Industries/Automotive
(Perhaps someone with more knowledge of your statistics than I can say how that median income, and Kentucky car manufacturing jobs compares to the UK.)
The US absolutely does have serious drug and homeless problems. Some states and cities have sensible policies to reduce them; others don't. The Seattle city council, for example, just voted not to arrest open drug users. (It was a close vote, suggesting that reality may be seeping in, even there.)
But the US also has the resources to cope with those problems.
Ok here’s my summary of America. Having been to six states - Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky (and DC) in the last two weeks. I’ve been from the 2nd poorest state to one of the richest. I’ve been from tiny towns to your capital, I’ve been from the beauties of Fallingwater to the horrors of Charleston. WV
America is on the verge of terrible, precipitous, absolute decline, based around the implosion of its urban centres, and this is complexly interlinked with covid, drugs, homelessness - in horribly intractable ways. You also have a racial problem based on white guilt and black resentment which feels insoluble. You teeter on the edge of the abyss. You are Rome in about 380AD
In short: America is fucked
Do you have the resources to deal with this? Absolutely. You have 340m people, basically an entire continent, and large intellectual capacity - not least the most powerful tech companies in the world and, still, many of the best universities
But this is probably the most perilous moment for America since the Civil War. You really are in a bad place. The life expectancy stats do not lie. I don’t need to go to a fucking car factory to change my mind. Thailand has car factories - and a higher life expectancy than America
Sort out your towns and cities. Sort out the drugs. Best of luck
Well, you weren't going to come back and say you were positively surprised and no longer inclined toward apocalyptic thinking about almost everything.
And, I assume Leon is visiting Kentucky to see the auto manufacturing plants there, though he hasn't mentioned that, yet. According to the governor's office, they employ about 100K workers: https://ced.ky.gov/Existing_Industries/Automotive
(Perhaps someone with more knowledge of your statistics than I can say how that median income, and Kentucky car manufacturing jobs compares to the UK.)
The US absolutely does have serious drug and homeless problems. Some states and cities have sensible policies to reduce them; others don't. The Seattle city council, for example, just voted not to arrest open drug users. (It was a close vote, suggesting that reality may be seeping in, even there.)
But the US also has the resources to cope with those problems.
Ok here’s my summary of America. Having been to six states - Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky (and DC) in the last two weeks. I’ve been from the 2nd poorest state to one of the richest. I’ve been from tiny towns to your capital, I’ve been from the beauties of Fallingwater to the horrors of Charleston. WV
America is on the verge of terrible, precipitous, absolute decline, based around the implosion of its urban centres, and this is complexly interlinked with covid, drugs, homelessness - in horribly intractable ways. You also have a racial problem based on white guilt and black resentment which feels insoluble. You teeter on the edge of the abyss. You are Rome in about 380AD
In short: America is fucked
Do you have the resources to deal with this? Absolutely. You have 340m people, basically an entire continent, and large intellectual capacity - not least the most powerful tech companies in the world and, still, many of the best universities
But this is probably the most perilous moment for America since the Civil War. You really are in a bad place. The life expectancy stats do not lie. I don’t need to go to a fucking car factory to change my mind. Thailand has car factories - and a higher life expectancy than America
Sort out your towns and cities. Sort out the drugs. Best of luck
Sounds a bit apocalyptic…oh…wait…yes, that’s what you do. Silly me.
DougSeal - I'm just trying to encourage Leon to visit one or more of those car factories. I don't think I'll succeed, but I feel an obligation to try. (Tours are temporarily closed at the big Toyota plant in Georgetown, but he might get a private tour, as a visiting dignitary. And there are other plants.)
(I get a kick out of his conclusion, considering the decline in our birth rate, and the complaints from incels.)
Sunak doesn't have a very clear grasp of the law if he thinks there isn't such a thing as a woman with a penis. Legally people can change gender without the need to change their sex organs.
But Rishi has trouble remembering not to go to parties in lockdowns, and remembering to put his seatbelt on when in a car, so we shouldn't expect too much from him.
Like almost everyone with at least two brain cells to rub together, Rishi Sunak is probably well aware that men have penises and not vaginas, whereas women have vaginas and not penises. If the law says otherwise, the law can f*ck off. What would you do if the law told you to stick your head in the oven?
More interesting is the apparent fact that somebody is destabilising the British government. Now who might that be, and why?
Oh that's easy, it's the Conservative and Unionist Party.
I forgot to add: the administration of the Tory party is also being destabilised.
Different victim, same culprit. You could call it a murder-suicide.
The CCHQ video, the Sunak 1922 video - what next?
Got to wonder whether the Sue Gray and Keir Starmer op will turn out to be a sting. (I wouldn't trust anyone who once ran a pub in Newry, but even they are capable of being successfully stitched up.)
A question for parliamentary and civil service procedure legal eagles: if Sue gets told that discussing working for Keir while she was still a permanent secretary would have got her the sack had anybody known about it - which she may well - where does that leave Keir? As LOTO and a former DPP, he might find it hard to plead ignorance. Surely suborning civil servants to break the rules has got to be considered naughty somewhere along the line.
I'm not really sure I'm following this conversation. Is it Sue Gray's fault that Rishi was filmed making shit jokes?
No it's not. I'm positing a connection between the leaking of two videos, the CCHQ one and the Sunak one, saying it looks like destabilisation, and suggesting that the Gray-Starmer story may soon swell up big, with a destabilising effect on the functioning of the strategic centre of the civil service and quite possibly also on Keir Starmer.
It's ironic that some have a tendency to blame Russia for turning their milk sour, and love to say Putin this and Putin that, but when things happen that are far more likely to be the result of real actual Russian covert operations they don't even think about Russia.
"When the enemy thinks you're near, be far away. When the enemy thinks you're far away, be close."
And, I assume Leon is visiting Kentucky to see the auto manufacturing plants there, though he hasn't mentioned that, yet. According to the governor's office, they employ about 100K workers: https://ced.ky.gov/Existing_Industries/Automotive
(Perhaps someone with more knowledge of your statistics than I can say how that median income, and Kentucky car manufacturing jobs compares to the UK.)
The US absolutely does have serious drug and homeless problems. Some states and cities have sensible policies to reduce them; others don't. The Seattle city council, for example, just voted not to arrest open drug users. (It was a close vote, suggesting that reality may be seeping in, even there.)
But the US also has the resources to cope with those problems.
Ok here’s my summary of America. Having been to six states - Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky (and DC) in the last two weeks. I’ve been from the 2nd poorest state to one of the richest. I’ve been from tiny towns to your capital, I’ve been from the beauties of Fallingwater to the horrors of Charleston. WV
America is on the verge of terrible, precipitous, absolute decline, based around the implosion of its urban centres, and this is complexly interlinked with covid, drugs, homelessness - in horribly intractable ways. You also have a racial problem based on white guilt and black resentment which feels insoluble. You teeter on the edge of the abyss. You are Rome in about 380AD
In short: America is fucked
Do you have the resources to deal with this? Absolutely. You have 340m people, basically an entire continent, and large intellectual capacity - not least the most powerful tech companies in the world and, still, many of the best universities
But this is probably the most perilous moment for America since the Civil War. You really are in a bad place. The life expectancy stats do not lie. I don’t need to go to a fucking car factory to change my mind. Thailand has car factories - and a higher life expectancy than America
Sort out your towns and cities. Sort out the drugs. Best of luck
If they re-elect Trump, American civilisation will be finished. I hope we are ready to capitalise, rather than descend on their coat-tails.
I'm not a fan of being in submissive lock-step on foreign policy , rather than a confident or periodically critical but dependable ally of the US, and I don't like the US's gun or extreme-free market experiments, but I personally wouldn't want to capitalise on any failure of the US's if that were to make things worse for the U.S, myself.
The U.S. is still a country of enormous potential, and also with enormous achievements under its belt, I think.
It's pretty much all change in politics in the UK - certainly for the Tories the old guard are out, and it's long been the case that Labour have ejected the beard folk. The Greens move on a little too, and no doubt the LDs will follow.
Who though are the future stars? I'll suggest two - for the Tories it's Alex Chalk, and for Labour, Matthew Pennycook.
I don't view these as next leader material in either case, but one day. I'm not surprised that I can't name a possible Green star, but I am a little surprised that I can't find a good LD prospect.
With so few seats, it’s a thin pool, made thinner by the LibDem’s obsession with selection by identity.
Daisy Cooper is almost certainly next leader.
Yes Daisy’s next in line. I think she’ll do well, better than Swinson, Cable or Farron (I think Davey’s quietly doing a very good job).
But for dearth of star quality look at the greens. Even the clown show that is Refuk manages to turn out people with bucket loads more charisma than the current green crop, post Lucas.
Sian Berry was fun at college. She was the Entertainments Officer at Trinity JCR. I met my wife at a college disco she organised.
Is the issue (and your post confirms my suspicions) the constitution of the party which prevents charismatic individuals from taking the limelight?
Siam Berry certainly speaks reasonably well and is telegenic. But she’s not allowed to be the “leader” because that would be somehow be inappropriate for the egalitarian greens.
Rishi Sunak's joke as crap as everything else he does.
Yes and the polite laughs showed that.
He’s hardly the laughter guzzler.
Starmer v Sunak v Ed will be a charisma vacuum.
The sad, very sad and disgusting, but 100% true thing is this: Boris Johnson has good comic timing and until recently was able to get away with saying all sorts of things unbecoming to a prime minister as a result. Sunak does not, nor do Braverman, Hunt, Badenoch or any of the others.
He hid in a fridge for goodness sake !!
So not just saying but also doing things that are not Prime Ministerial.
Absolutely so, he’s a twat and I hate him. But he has good comic timing. Other politicians with same skill are thin on the ground but include Jess Phillips, Charles Kennedy, Dennis Skinner, Tony Blair (yes, Tony Blair), William Hague, and Emily Thornberry. I make no claim for their assorted politico-ideological pedigrees, simply that they have good comic timing.
Angela Eagle. PMQs in comedy heaven (supposing such a thing possible) would be Eagle v Hague.
Sunak doesn't have a very clear grasp of the law if he thinks there isn't such a thing as a woman with a penis. Legally people can change gender without the need to change their sex organs.
But Rishi has trouble remembering not to go to parties in lockdowns, and remembering to put his seatbelt on when in a car, so we shouldn't expect too much from him.
Like almost everyone with at least two brain cells to rub together, Rishi Sunak is probably well aware that men have penises and not vaginas, whereas women have vaginas and not penises. If the law says otherwise, the law can f*ck off. What would you do if the law told you to stick your head in the oven?
More interesting is the apparent fact that somebody is destabilising the British government. Now who might that be, and why?
Oh that's easy, it's the Conservative and Unionist Party.
I forgot to add: the administration of the Tory party is also being destabilised.
Different victim, same culprit. You could call it a murder-suicide.
The CCHQ video, the Sunak 1922 video - what next?
Got to wonder whether the Sue Gray and Keir Starmer op will turn out to be a sting. (I wouldn't trust anyone who once ran a pub in Newry, but even they are capable of being successfully stitched up.)
A question for parliamentary and civil service procedure legal eagles: if Sue gets told that discussing working for Keir while she was still a permanent secretary would have got her the sack had anybody known about it - which she may well - where does that leave Keir? As LOTO and a former DPP, he might find it hard to plead ignorance. Surely suborning civil servants to break the rules has got to be considered naughty somewhere along the line.
I'm not really sure I'm following this conversation. Is it Sue Gray's fault that Rishi was filmed making shit jokes?
No it's not. I'm positing a connection between the leaking of two videos, the CCHQ one and the Sunak one, saying it looks like destabilisation, and suggesting that the Gray-Starmer story may soon swell up big, with a destabilising effect on the functioning of the strategic centre of the civil service and quite possibly also on Keir Starmer.
No, I'm still deeply confused. I assumed you were were talking about Borisy elements undermining Sunak, but I guess not, but I cannot follow the leap towards Gray. You'll probably have to spell this out to me in giant red crayon or give me up as too stupid to understand what you're on about.
And, I assume Leon is visiting Kentucky to see the auto manufacturing plants there, though he hasn't mentioned that, yet. According to the governor's office, they employ about 100K workers: https://ced.ky.gov/Existing_Industries/Automotive
(Perhaps someone with more knowledge of your statistics than I can say how that median income, and Kentucky car manufacturing jobs compares to the UK.)
The US absolutely does have serious drug and homeless problems. Some states and cities have sensible policies to reduce them; others don't. The Seattle city council, for example, just voted not to arrest open drug users. (It was a close vote, suggesting that reality may be seeping in, even there.)
But the US also has the resources to cope with those problems.
Ok here’s my summary of America. Having been to six states - Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky (and DC) in the last two weeks. I’ve been from the 2nd poorest state to one of the richest. I’ve been from tiny towns to your capital, I’ve been from the beauties of Fallingwater to the horrors of Charleston. WV
America is on the verge of terrible, precipitous, absolute decline, based around the implosion of its urban centres, and this is complexly interlinked with covid, drugs, homelessness - in horribly intractable ways. You also have a racial problem based on white guilt and black resentment which feels insoluble. You teeter on the edge of the abyss. You are Rome in about 380AD
In short: America is fucked
Do you have the resources to deal with this? Absolutely. You have 340m people, basically an entire continent, and large intellectual capacity - not least the most powerful tech companies in the world and, still, many of the best universities
But this is probably the most perilous moment for America since the Civil War. You really are in a bad place. The life expectancy stats do not lie. I don’t need to go to a fucking car factory to change my mind. Thailand has car factories - and a higher life expectancy than America
Sort out your towns and cities. Sort out the drugs. Best of luck
Well, you weren't going to come back and say you were positively surprised and no longer inclined toward apocalyptic thinking about almost everything.
Yes, I was. Why would I lie to support a thesis I no longer believe to be true? That’s boring. I came here with a suspicion America is in trouble but a hope that it isn’t.
I’m telling it like I see it. For the sake of balance i think Britain is also badly placed and - despite being a right winger - I have to admit 13 years of Tory government have done almost nothing to solve our grindingly obvious problems
America just feels MORE apocalyptic because it is, and because it is still theoretically the richest nation on earth and the great superpower etc, whereas the reality on the ground is in such stark contrast to the statistics
It's pretty much all change in politics in the UK - certainly for the Tories the old guard are out, and it's long been the case that Labour have ejected the beard folk. The Greens move on a little too, and no doubt the LDs will follow.
Who though are the future stars? I'll suggest two - for the Tories it's Alex Chalk, and for Labour, Matthew Pennycook.
I don't view these as next leader material in either case, but one day. I'm not surprised that I can't name a possible Green star, but I am a little surprised that I can't find a good LD prospect.
With so few seats, it’s a thin pool, made thinner by the LibDem’s obsession with selection by identity.
Daisy Cooper is almost certainly next leader.
Yes Daisy’s next in line. I think she’ll do well, better than Swinson, Cable or Farron (I think Davey’s quietly doing a very good job).
But for dearth of star quality look at the greens. Even the clown show that is Refuk manages to turn out people with bucket loads more charisma than the current green crop, post Lucas.
Sian Berry was fun at college. She was the Entertainments Officer at Trinity JCR. I met my wife at a college disco she organised.
Is the issue (and your post confirms my suspicions) the constitution of the party which prevents charismatic individuals from taking the limelight?
Siam Berry certainly speaks reasonably well and is telegenic. But she’s not allowed to be the “leader” because that would be somehow be inappropriate for the egalitarian greens.
I’m guessing that Siam Berry was only co-leader because the leadership vote was a Thai?
It's pretty much all change in politics in the UK - certainly for the Tories the old guard are out, and it's long been the case that Labour have ejected the beard folk. The Greens move on a little too, and no doubt the LDs will follow.
Who though are the future stars? I'll suggest two - for the Tories it's Alex Chalk, and for Labour, Matthew Pennycook.
I don't view these as next leader material in either case, but one day. I'm not surprised that I can't name a possible Green star, but I am a little surprised that I can't find a good LD prospect.
With so few seats, it’s a thin pool, made thinner by the LibDem’s obsession with selection by identity.
Daisy Cooper is almost certainly next leader.
Yes Daisy’s next in line. I think she’ll do well, better than Swinson, Cable or Farron (I think Davey’s quietly doing a very good job).
But for dearth of star quality look at the greens. Even the clown show that is Refuk manages to turn out people with bucket loads more charisma than the current green crop, post Lucas.
Sian Berry was fun at college. She was the Entertainments Officer at Trinity JCR. I met my wife at a college disco she organised.
Is the issue (and your post confirms my suspicions) the constitution of the party which prevents charismatic individuals from taking the limelight?
Siam Berry certainly speaks reasonably well and is telegenic. But she’s not allowed to be the “leader” because that would be somehow be inappropriate for the egalitarian greens.
She was co-leader of the Greens for 3 or 4 years. I’m not sure what you’re on about
It's pretty much all change in politics in the UK - certainly for the Tories the old guard are out, and it's long been the case that Labour have ejected the beard folk. The Greens move on a little too, and no doubt the LDs will follow.
Who though are the future stars? I'll suggest two - for the Tories it's Alex Chalk, and for Labour, Matthew Pennycook.
I don't view these as next leader material in either case, but one day. I'm not surprised that I can't name a possible Green star, but I am a little surprised that I can't find a good LD prospect.
With so few seats, it’s a thin pool, made thinner by the LibDem’s obsession with selection by identity.
Daisy Cooper is almost certainly next leader.
Yes Daisy’s next in line. I think she’ll do well, better than Swinson, Cable or Farron (I think Davey’s quietly doing a very good job).
But for dearth of star quality look at the greens. Even the clown show that is Refuk manages to turn out people with bucket loads more charisma than the current green crop, post Lucas.
Sian Berry was fun at college. She was the Entertainments Officer at Trinity JCR. I met my wife at a college disco she organised.
Is the issue (and your post confirms my suspicions) the constitution of the party which prevents charismatic individuals from taking the limelight?
Siam Berry certainly speaks reasonably well and is telegenic. But she’s not allowed to be the “leader” because that would be somehow be inappropriate for the egalitarian greens.
I’m guessing that Siam Berry was only co-leader because the leadership vote was a Thai?
She was forced to share the green leadership with her ideologically conjoined twin?
Basically, how much can the US rely on its allies, and how much can its allies rely on the U.S.?
This, by the way, is the premise behind my concept of a tight Anglo-Canadian alliance, which I’ve mentioned before on here. Another Trump victory may render the USA an unreliable guarantor of European security.
It's pretty much all change in politics in the UK - certainly for the Tories the old guard are out, and it's long been the case that Labour have ejected the beard folk. The Greens move on a little too, and no doubt the LDs will follow.
Who though are the future stars? I'll suggest two - for the Tories it's Alex Chalk, and for Labour, Matthew Pennycook.
I don't view these as next leader material in either case, but one day. I'm not surprised that I can't name a possible Green star, but I am a little surprised that I can't find a good LD prospect.
With so few seats, it’s a thin pool, made thinner by the LibDem’s obsession with selection by identity.
Daisy Cooper is almost certainly next leader.
Yes Daisy’s next in line. I think she’ll do well, better than Swinson, Cable or Farron (I think Davey’s quietly doing a very good job).
But for dearth of star quality look at the greens. Even the clown show that is Refuk manages to turn out people with bucket loads more charisma than the current green crop, post Lucas.
Sian Berry was fun at college. She was the Entertainments Officer at Trinity JCR. I met my wife at a college disco she organised.
Is the issue (and your post confirms my suspicions) the constitution of the party which prevents charismatic individuals from taking the limelight?
Siam Berry certainly speaks reasonably well and is telegenic. But she’s not allowed to be the “leader” because that would be somehow be inappropriate for the egalitarian greens.
She was co-leader of the Greens for 3 or 4 years. I’m not sure what you’re on about
I have just spent a week in New England, and have found it - in the main - to be prosperous and thriving.
Yes there is homelessness. But there's not obviously loads more than I've seen in the past. Indeed, Boston certainly seems to have less than New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco.
And the bars and restaurants seem to have been thriving. Even now, on Sunday night, our attempts to book dinner in Boston are stymied by nowhere having availability before 930pm.
Maybe I'm in a relative well off area.
But I suspect the simple issue is that I am not preprogrammed to look for decline.
Basically, how much can the US rely on its allies, and how much can its allies rely on the U.S.?
This, by the way, is the premise behind my concept of a tight Anglo-Canadian alliance, which I’ve mentioned before on here. Another Trump victory may render the USA an unreliable guarantor of European security.
I think there is no doubt that Ukraine is keen to beat Russia before the next Presidential election, while Putin is desperate to hang on until Trump is restored to power.
I have just spent a week in New England, and have found it - in the main - to be prosperous and thriving.
Yes there is homelessness. But there's not obviously loads more than I've seen in the past. Indeed, Boston certainly seems to have less than New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco.
And the bars and restaurants seem to have been thriving. Even now, on Sunday night, our attempts to book dinner in Boston are stymied by nowhere having availability before 930pm.
Maybe I'm in a relative well off area.
But I suspect the simple issue is that I am not preprogrammed to look for decline.
Isn’t it that America is a microcosm of the world, as in a smaller way is Britain, and therefore contains (almost - excluding mediaeval town centres) everything you would expect to come across in the world, rich and poor?
I have just spent a week in New England, and have found it - in the main - to be prosperous and thriving.
Yes there is homelessness. But there's not obviously loads more than I've seen in the past. Indeed, Boston certainly seems to have less than New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco.
And the bars and restaurants seem to have been thriving. Even now, on Sunday night, our attempts to book dinner in Boston are stymied by nowhere having availability before 930pm.
Maybe I'm in a relative well off area.
But I suspect the simple issue is that I am not preprogrammed to look for decline.
Saw your note upthread. Salem *is* touristy.
Marblehead is nice for a lunch on the water, and Concord MA is fantastic.
I have just spent a week in New England, and have found it - in the main - to be prosperous and thriving.
Yes there is homelessness. But there's not obviously loads more than I've seen in the past. Indeed, Boston certainly seems to have less than New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco.
And the bars and restaurants seem to have been thriving. Even now, on Sunday night, our attempts to book dinner in Boston are stymied by nowhere having availability before 930pm.
Maybe I'm in a relative well off area.
But I suspect the simple issue is that I am not preprogrammed to look for decline.
I’m off to Boston next month. I shall take photos of such prosperity I find there and post them on here with CAPS
It's pretty much all change in politics in the UK - certainly for the Tories the old guard are out, and it's long been the case that Labour have ejected the beard folk. The Greens move on a little too, and no doubt the LDs will follow.
Who though are the future stars? I'll suggest two - for the Tories it's Alex Chalk, and for Labour, Matthew Pennycook.
I don't view these as next leader material in either case, but one day. I'm not surprised that I can't name a possible Green star, but I am a little surprised that I can't find a good LD prospect.
With so few seats, it’s a thin pool, made thinner by the LibDem’s obsession with selection by identity.
Daisy Cooper is almost certainly next leader.
Yes Daisy’s next in line. I think she’ll do well, better than Swinson, Cable or Farron (I think Davey’s quietly doing a very good job).
But for dearth of star quality look at the greens. Even the clown show that is Refuk manages to turn out people with bucket loads more charisma than the current green crop, post Lucas.
Sian Berry was fun at college. She was the Entertainments Officer at Trinity JCR. I met my wife at a college disco she organised.
Is the issue (and your post confirms my suspicions) the constitution of the party which prevents charismatic individuals from taking the limelight?
Siam Berry certainly speaks reasonably well and is telegenic. But she’s not allowed to be the “leader” because that would be somehow be inappropriate for the egalitarian greens.
She was co-leader of the Greens for 3 or 4 years. I’m not sure what you’re on about
“Co”. Precisely.
Well, she’s running to replace the Green’s only MP, Caroline Lucas, which should give her a very high profile if successful
Basically, how much can the US rely on its allies, and how much can its allies rely on the U.S.?
This, by the way, is the premise behind my concept of a tight Anglo-Canadian alliance, which I’ve mentioned before on here. Another Trump victory may render the USA an unreliable guarantor of European security.
I think there is no doubt that Ukraine is keen to beat Russia before the next Presidential election, while Putin is desperate to hang on until Trump is restored to power.
Which he won’t be. Trump will lose. I would love to see Russia hanging on heroically awaiting their salvation from the orange beelzebub, only to find themselves with 4 more years of Biden (or a successor) and a shit ton of new weaponry for Ukraine. By which point they’ll be so ground down they’ll no longer be a threat to anyone.
That link links to this link and the headline starts with "In the global struggle between the Eurasian “Heartland” and the US-led "Rimland," there's trouble ahead."
Well. I wonder who did a PB article on Geopolitics? Hmm, it's a puzzle and no mistake..
It's pretty much all change in politics in the UK - certainly for the Tories the old guard are out, and it's long been the case that Labour have ejected the beard folk. The Greens move on a little too, and no doubt the LDs will follow.
Who though are the future stars? I'll suggest two - for the Tories it's Alex Chalk, and for Labour, Matthew Pennycook.
I don't view these as next leader material in either case, but one day. I'm not surprised that I can't name a possible Green star, but I am a little surprised that I can't find a good LD prospect.
With so few seats, it’s a thin pool, made thinner by the LibDem’s obsession with selection by identity.
Daisy Cooper is almost certainly next leader.
Yes Daisy’s next in line. I think she’ll do well, better than Swinson, Cable or Farron (I think Davey’s quietly doing a very good job).
But for dearth of star quality look at the greens. Even the clown show that is Refuk manages to turn out people with bucket loads more charisma than the current green crop, post Lucas.
Sian Berry was fun at college. She was the Entertainments Officer at Trinity JCR. I met my wife at a college disco she organised.
Is the issue (and your post confirms my suspicions) the constitution of the party which prevents charismatic individuals from taking the limelight?
Siam Berry certainly speaks reasonably well and is telegenic. But she’s not allowed to be the “leader” because that would be somehow be inappropriate for the egalitarian greens.
She was co-leader of the Greens for 3 or 4 years. I’m not sure what you’re on about
“Co”. Precisely.
Well, she’s running to replace the Green’s only MP, Caroline Lucas, which should give her a very high profile if successful
I expect (sadly) Labour might snaffle that one. I hope I’m wrong.
It's pretty much all change in politics in the UK - certainly for the Tories the old guard are out, and it's long been the case that Labour have ejected the beard folk. The Greens move on a little too, and no doubt the LDs will follow.
Who though are the future stars? I'll suggest two - for the Tories it's Alex Chalk, and for Labour, Matthew Pennycook.
I don't view these as next leader material in either case, but one day. I'm not surprised that I can't name a possible Green star, but I am a little surprised that I can't find a good LD prospect.
With so few seats, it’s a thin pool, made thinner by the LibDem’s obsession with selection by identity.
Daisy Cooper is almost certainly next leader.
Yes Daisy’s next in line. I think she’ll do well, better than Swinson, Cable or Farron (I think Davey’s quietly doing a very good job).
But for dearth of star quality look at the greens. Even the clown show that is Refuk manages to turn out people with bucket loads more charisma than the current green crop, post Lucas.
Sian Berry was fun at college. She was the Entertainments Officer at Trinity JCR. I met my wife at a college disco she organised.
Is the issue (and your post confirms my suspicions) the constitution of the party which prevents charismatic individuals from taking the limelight?
Siam Berry certainly speaks reasonably well and is telegenic. But she’s not allowed to be the “leader” because that would be somehow be inappropriate for the egalitarian greens.
I’m guessing that Siam Berry was only co-leader because the leadership vote was a Thai?
She was forced to share the green leadership with her ideologically conjoined twin?
As the old wisdom of the east says, “to be top green, curry favour, and as spring rolls in your prize will come, if it doesn’t then just say Phuket and move on.”
I have just spent a week in New England, and have found it - in the main - to be prosperous and thriving.
Yes there is homelessness. But there's not obviously loads more than I've seen in the past. Indeed, Boston certainly seems to have less than New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco.
And the bars and restaurants seem to have been thriving. Even now, on Sunday night, our attempts to book dinner in Boston are stymied by nowhere having availability before 930pm.
Maybe I'm in a relative well off area.
But I suspect the simple issue is that I am not preprogrammed to look for decline.
Well i think many of the areas around the major cities in the blue states are still prosperous for now. But Leon is likely travelling more widely than you and seeing the run down areas in the red states.
A thought about the 1 minute video of youngish Tories partying from the Mirror today. Partygate, along with other things, means Tories are toast for a few years. All this we knew.
But watching it a couple of times, I feel slightly differently, and rather feel for the characters in it. Of course they are all working for an outfit in the hands of a PM unfit for office. And young Tories are not popular. But for those of a certain age the Covid years were cruel about love, life and fun. There is something of poetry about the two not very brilliant dancers. Nothing in me wants to criticise them. Young people round here in the far north of England took their random chances too.
Depends. I think it’s possible England collapse in a heap tomorrow and set less than 150 as a target. Definitely have draw then Aus then Eng as the order of probability right now.
A thought about the 1 minute video of youngish Tories partying from the Mirror today. Partygate, along with other things, means Tories are toast for a few years. All this we knew.
But watching it a couple of times, I feel slightly differently, and rather feel for the characters in it. Of course they are all working for an outfit in the hands of a PM unfit for office. And young Tories are not popular. But for those of a certain age the Covid years were cruel about love, life and fun. There is something of poetry about the two not very brilliant dancers. Nothing in me wants to criticise them. Young people round here in the far north of England took their random chances too.
I doubt most folks would disagree with you.
It’s the wanton absence of leadership that enrages people.
Sunak doesn't have a very clear grasp of the law if he thinks there isn't such a thing as a woman with a penis. Legally people can change gender without the need to change their sex organs.
But Rishi has trouble remembering not to go to parties in lockdowns, and remembering to put his seatbelt on when in a car, so we shouldn't expect too much from him.
Like almost everyone with at least two brain cells to rub together, Rishi Sunak is probably well aware that men have penises and not vaginas, whereas women have vaginas and not penises. If the law says otherwise, the law can f*ck off. What would you do if the law told you to stick your head in the oven?
More interesting is the apparent fact that somebody is destabilising the British government. Now who might that be, and why?
Oh that's easy, it's the Conservative and Unionist Party.
I forgot to add: the administration of the Tory party is also being destabilised.
Different victim, same culprit. You could call it a murder-suicide.
The CCHQ video, the Sunak 1922 video - what next?
Got to wonder whether the Sue Gray and Keir Starmer op will turn out to be a sting. (I wouldn't trust anyone who once ran a pub in Newry, but even they are capable of being successfully stitched up.)
A question for parliamentary and civil service procedure legal eagles: if Sue gets told that discussing working for Keir while she was still a permanent secretary would have got her the sack had anybody known about it - which she may well - where does that leave Keir? As LOTO and a former DPP, he might find it hard to plead ignorance. Surely suborning civil servants to break the rules has got to be considered naughty somewhere along the line.
It's a very hypothetical question. Senior civil servants I imagine aren't expected to have no conflicts of interest, but are expected to manage them appropriately. Many people leave the civil service to take on jobs that are more explicitly political than Sue Gray's role of chief of staff for the Labour Party. There's actually a process to support civil servants becoming MPs -.job will be kept for them if they fail to win.
If Sue Gray deals with a conflict of interest by leaving the Civil Service, where's the issue now?
Sunak doesn't have a very clear grasp of the law if he thinks there isn't such a thing as a woman with a penis. Legally people can change gender without the need to change their sex organs.
But Rishi has trouble remembering not to go to parties in lockdowns, and remembering to put his seatbelt on when in a car, so we shouldn't expect too much from him.
Like almost everyone with at least two brain cells to rub together, Rishi Sunak is probably well aware that men have penises and not vaginas, whereas women have vaginas and not penises. If the law says otherwise, the law can f*ck off. What would you do if the law told you to stick your head in the oven?
More interesting is the apparent fact that somebody is destabilising the British government. Now who might that be, and why?
Oh that's easy, it's the Conservative and Unionist Party.
I forgot to add: the administration of the Tory party is also being destabilised.
Different victim, same culprit. You could call it a murder-suicide.
The CCHQ video, the Sunak 1922 video - what next?
Got to wonder whether the Sue Gray and Keir Starmer op will turn out to be a sting. (I wouldn't trust anyone who once ran a pub in Newry, but even they are capable of being successfully stitched up.)
A question for parliamentary and civil service procedure legal eagles: if Sue gets told that discussing working for Keir while she was still a permanent secretary would have got her the sack had anybody known about it - which she may well - where does that leave Keir? As LOTO and a former DPP, he might find it hard to plead ignorance. Surely suborning civil servants to break the rules has got to be considered naughty somewhere along the line.
It's a very hypothetical question. Senior civil servants I imagine aren't expected to have no conflicts of interest, but are expected to manage them appropriately. Many people leave the civil service to take on jobs that are more explicitly political than Sue Gray's role of chief of staff for the Labour Party. There's actually a process to support civil servants becoming MPs -.job will be kept for them if they fail to win.
If Sue Gray deals with a conflict of interest by leaving the Civil Service, where's the issue now?
It’s ridiculous to assume that, unlike almost everyone else, civil servants have no interest or views about politics. Most people keep their political views separate from their work. There’s no reason that civil servants should be any different.
It's pretty much all change in politics in the UK - certainly for the Tories the old guard are out, and it's long been the case that Labour have ejected the beard folk. The Greens move on a little too, and no doubt the LDs will follow.
Who though are the future stars? I'll suggest two - for the Tories it's Alex Chalk, and for Labour, Matthew Pennycook.
I don't view these as next leader material in either case, but one day. I'm not surprised that I can't name a possible Green star, but I am a little surprised that I can't find a good LD prospect.
With so few seats, it’s a thin pool, made thinner by the LibDem’s obsession with selection by identity.
Daisy Cooper is almost certainly next leader.
Yes Daisy’s next in line. I think she’ll do well, better than Swinson, Cable or Farron (I think Davey’s quietly doing a very good job).
But for dearth of star quality look at the greens. Even the clown show that is Refuk manages to turn out people with bucket loads more charisma than the current green crop, post Lucas.
Sian Berry was fun at college. She was the Entertainments Officer at Trinity JCR. I met my wife at a college disco she organised.
Is the issue (and your post confirms my suspicions) the constitution of the party which prevents charismatic individuals from taking the limelight?
Siam Berry certainly speaks reasonably well and is telegenic. But she’s not allowed to be the “leader” because that would be somehow be inappropriate for the egalitarian greens.
She was co-leader of the Greens for 3 or 4 years. I’m not sure what you’re on about
“Co”. Precisely.
Well, she’s running to replace the Green’s only MP, Caroline Lucas, which should give her a very high profile if successful
I expect (sadly) Labour might snaffle that one. I hope I’m wrong.
Leon claims he is going to a variety of areas but as far as I can tell he is doing the US equivalent of travelling from Bradford to Hull.
Without the highlight of driving through Selby.
Both are actually right. Rcs is correctly observing the exorbitant privilege of the elites in the us blue states and leon is correctly observing the decay in much of the rest of the country.
And, I assume Leon is visiting Kentucky to see the auto manufacturing plants there, though he hasn't mentioned that, yet. According to the governor's office, they employ about 100K workers: https://ced.ky.gov/Existing_Industries/Automotive
(Perhaps someone with more knowledge of your statistics than I can say how that median income, and Kentucky car manufacturing jobs compares to the UK.)
The US absolutely does have serious drug and homeless problems. Some states and cities have sensible policies to reduce them; others don't. The Seattle city council, for example, just voted not to arrest open drug users. (It was a close vote, suggesting that reality may be seeping in, even there.)
But the US also has the resources to cope with those problems.
Ok here’s my summary of America. Having been to six states - Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky (and DC) in the last two weeks. I’ve been from the 2nd poorest state to one of the richest. I’ve been from tiny towns to your capital, I’ve been from the beauties of Fallingwater to the horrors of Charleston. WV
America is on the verge of terrible, precipitous, absolute decline, based around the implosion of its urban centres, and this is complexly interlinked with covid, drugs, homelessness - in horribly intractable ways. You also have a racial problem based on white guilt and black resentment which feels insoluble. You teeter on the edge of the abyss. You are Rome in about 380AD
In short: America is fucked
Do you have the resources to deal with this? Absolutely. You have 340m people, basically an entire continent, and large intellectual capacity - not least the most powerful tech companies in the world and, still, many of the best universities
But this is probably the most perilous moment for America since the Civil War. You really are in a bad place. The life expectancy stats do not lie. I don’t need to go to a fucking car factory to change my mind. Thailand has car factories - and a higher life expectancy than America
Sort out your towns and cities. Sort out the drugs. Best of luck
Well, you weren't going to come back and say you were positively surprised and no longer inclined toward apocalyptic thinking about almost everything.
Yes, I was. Why would I lie to support a thesis I no longer believe to be true? That’s boring. I came here with a suspicion America is in trouble but a hope that it isn’t.
I’m telling it like I see it. For the sake of balance i think Britain is also badly placed and - despite being a right winger - I have to admit 13 years of Tory government have done almost nothing to solve our grindingly obvious problems
America just feels MORE apocalyptic because it is, and because it is still theoretically the richest nation on earth and the great superpower etc, whereas the reality on the ground is in such stark contrast to the statistics
Now I must drive to the airport
Surely the fundamental problem is inequality. Inequality in wealth, inequality in opportunities and inequality between regions. Unless wealth is shared and used to benefit society as a whole, the kinds of crack in the fabric we now see in the US and UK are inevitable.
And, I assume Leon is visiting Kentucky to see the auto manufacturing plants there, though he hasn't mentioned that, yet. According to the governor's office, they employ about 100K workers: https://ced.ky.gov/Existing_Industries/Automotive
(Perhaps someone with more knowledge of your statistics than I can say how that median income, and Kentucky car manufacturing jobs compares to the UK.)
The US absolutely does have serious drug and homeless problems. Some states and cities have sensible policies to reduce them; others don't. The Seattle city council, for example, just voted not to arrest open drug users. (It was a close vote, suggesting that reality may be seeping in, even there.)
But the US also has the resources to cope with those problems.
Ok here’s my summary of America. Having been to six states - Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky (and DC) in the last two weeks. I’ve been from the 2nd poorest state to one of the richest. I’ve been from tiny towns to your capital, I’ve been from the beauties of Fallingwater to the horrors of Charleston. WV
America is on the verge of terrible, precipitous, absolute decline, based around the implosion of its urban centres, and this is complexly interlinked with covid, drugs, homelessness - in horribly intractable ways. You also have a racial problem based on white guilt and black resentment which feels insoluble. You teeter on the edge of the abyss. You are Rome in about 380AD
In short: America is fucked
Do you have the resources to deal with this? Absolutely. You have 340m people, basically an entire continent, and large intellectual capacity - not least the most powerful tech companies in the world and, still, many of the best universities
But this is probably the most perilous moment for America since the Civil War. You really are in a bad place. The life expectancy stats do not lie. I don’t need to go to a fucking car factory to change my mind. Thailand has car factories - and a higher life expectancy than America
Sort out your towns and cities. Sort out the drugs. Best of luck
Well, you weren't going to come back and say you were positively surprised and no longer inclined toward apocalyptic thinking about almost everything.
Yes, I was. Why would I lie to support a thesis I no longer believe to be true? That’s boring. I came here with a suspicion America is in trouble but a hope that it isn’t.
I’m telling it like I see it. For the sake of balance i think Britain is also badly placed and - despite being a right winger - I have to admit 13 years of Tory government have done almost nothing to solve our grindingly obvious problems
America just feels MORE apocalyptic because it is, and because it is still theoretically the richest nation on earth and the great superpower etc, whereas the reality on the ground is in such stark contrast to the statistics
Now I must drive to the airport
Surely the fundamental problem is inequality. Inequality in wealth, inequality in opportunities and inequality between regions. Unless wealth is shared and used to benefit society as a whole, the kinds of crack in the fabric we now see in the US and UK are inevitable.
Absolutely. The us is a divided country. Walking round tony boston suburbs saying all is fine is as bad as walking round a west virginia mining town and saying everything is falling apart.
A thought about the 1 minute video of youngish Tories partying from the Mirror today. Partygate, along with other things, means Tories are toast for a few years. All this we knew.
But watching it a couple of times, I feel slightly differently, and rather feel for the characters in it. Of course they are all working for an outfit in the hands of a PM unfit for office. And young Tories are not popular. But for those of a certain age the Covid years were cruel about love, life and fun. There is something of poetry about the two not very brilliant dancers. Nothing in me wants to criticise them. Young people round here in the far north of England took their random chances too.
I feel guilty about this.given the sacrifices people made during lockdown to keep the rest of us safe, but that video is laugh-aloud hilarious. It's a perfectly scripted noughties TV political comedy show with the slick young men stage whispering their dialogue and the drunken disco dancing in the background in Christmas jumpers.
As an aside I wonder why it took three years for the video to come to light. Who was biding their time and why? Why did no-one in the video consider how it might look if the video was leaked?
Rishi Sunak's joke as crap as everything else he does.
True, on his death bed he will be bemoaning having had a crap education, a crap career that delivered no success and riches, a crap second career where he was Chancellor of the exchequer then PM, a crap marriage to a billionaire and most likely a crap existence after politics. His final words will be “if only I had been less crap and as successful as FF43.”
interesting that this oft plagiarised line from a long dead footballer with talent should be brought up now when discussing comic timing. Find your own homilies.
To escape the heat, take the Children’s Railway up into the hills with a picnic. Or just chill out in one of the thermal spas - Gellert was my favourite. The parliament buildings out-Gothics Westminster, albeit without the history.
“I’m not against the homeless, I’m a social worker, and I’ve worked with the homeless about 15 years. But this is different, this is a different kind of homeless” said Mallory.
Billie Mallory says her concerns are with people at the Third Street and Martin Luther King corner and Third Street and Elm Tree corner.
She says she has seen an increase in property damage, loitering, and violence.
“They’re all over this neighborhood and they’re just, they’re very threatening” said Mallory.“
East End = predominately African American, historically and today. (Tpoff being corner of 3rd and MLK.)
Always been deprived area. Even more so by COVID and post-pandemic fentanyl-homeless epidemic.
But downtown itself feels sketchy and uncomfortable. I wouldn’t bring kids here. It’s faintly but discernibly menacing - and this is a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon!
I don’t think I’m imagining this
“Maybe social media has created civilian watchdogs; maybe more people care about what’s going on in their community. Many people are tired of having to avoid going out downtown and spending time with family and friends because the risk of getting assaulted, robbed or shot is there.
“This is just an observation I have made during my time living here in Lexington. It is so much different then when I was a naive kid making weekend trips with my family here”
Comments
America is on the verge of terrible, precipitous, absolute decline, based around the implosion of its urban centres, and this is complexly interlinked with covid, drugs, homelessness - in horribly intractable ways. You also have a racial problem based on white guilt and black resentment which feels insoluble. You teeter on the edge of the abyss. You are Rome in about 380AD
In short: America is fucked
Do you have the resources to deal with this? Absolutely. You have 340m people, basically an entire continent, and large intellectual capacity - not least the most powerful tech companies in the world and, still, many of the best universities
But this is probably the most perilous moment for America since the Civil War. You really are in a bad place. The life expectancy stats do not lie. I don’t need to go to a fucking car factory to change my mind. Thailand has car factories - and a higher life expectancy than America
Sort out your towns and cities. Sort out the drugs. Best of luck
Got to wonder whether the Sue Gray and Keir Starmer op will turn out to be a sting. (I wouldn't trust anyone who once ran a pub in Newry, but even they are capable of being successfully stitched up.)
A question for parliamentary and civil service procedure legal eagles: if Sue gets told that discussing working for Keir while she was still a permanent secretary would have got her the sack had anybody known about it - which she may well - where does that leave Keir? As LOTO and a former DPP, he might find it hard to plead ignorance. Surely suborning civil servants to break the rules has got to be considered naughty somewhere along the line.
It reminds me of George Clinton's sketch for 1970's Black America, "The Mothership Connection is here."
Keir Starmer (LAB): 40% (-1)
Rishi Sunak (CON): 31% (-4)
via @RedfieldWilton, 11 Jun
(Changes with 28 May)
bucktooth_girl_staring_in_confused_horror.gif
(I get a kick out of his conclusion, considering the decline in our birth rate, and the complaints from incels.)
It's ironic that some have a tendency to blame Russia for turning their milk sour, and love to say Putin this and Putin that, but when things happen that are far more likely to be the result of real actual Russian covert operations they don't even think about Russia.
"When the enemy thinks you're near, be far away. When the enemy thinks you're far away, be close."
The U.S. is still a country of enormous potential, and also with enormous achievements under its belt, I think.
Siam Berry certainly speaks reasonably well and is telegenic. But she’s not allowed to be the “leader” because that would be somehow be inappropriate for the egalitarian greens.
I assumed you were were talking about Borisy elements undermining Sunak, but I guess not, but I cannot follow the leap towards Gray. You'll probably have to spell this out to me in giant red crayon or give me up as too stupid to understand what you're on about.
I’m telling it like I see it. For the sake of balance i think Britain is also badly placed and - despite being a right winger - I have to admit 13 years of Tory government have done almost nothing to solve our grindingly obvious problems
America just feels MORE apocalyptic because it is, and because it is still theoretically the richest nation on earth and the great superpower etc, whereas the reality on the ground is in such stark contrast to the statistics
Now I must drive to the airport
https://twitter.com/nfergus/status/1670389175311568896?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg
Basically, how much can the US rely on its allies, and how much can its allies rely on the U.S.?
This, by the way, is the premise behind my concept of a tight Anglo-Canadian alliance, which I’ve mentioned before on here. Another Trump victory may render the USA an unreliable guarantor of European security.
I have just spent a week in New England, and have found it - in the main - to be prosperous and thriving.
Yes there is homelessness. But there's not obviously loads more than I've seen in the past. Indeed, Boston certainly seems to have less than New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco.
And the bars and restaurants seem to have been thriving. Even now, on Sunday night, our attempts to book dinner in Boston are stymied by nowhere having availability before 930pm.
Maybe I'm in a relative well off area.
But I suspect the simple issue is that I am not preprogrammed to look for decline.
Marblehead is nice for a lunch on the water, and Concord MA is fantastic.
We didn't.
And by the way, what sort of numpty builder slopes the garage floor from front to back so that any water that finds its way in just keeps going?
Well. I wonder who did a PB article on Geopolitics? Hmm, it's a puzzle and no mistake..
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2022/05/02/why-ukraine-was-particularly-vulnerable/
But watching it a couple of times, I feel slightly differently, and rather feel for the characters in it. Of course they are all working for an outfit in the hands of a PM unfit for office. And young Tories are not popular. But for those of a certain age the Covid years were cruel about love, life and fun. There is something of poetry about the two not very brilliant dancers. Nothing in me wants to criticise them. Young people round here in the far north of England took their random chances too.
It’s the wanton absence of leadership that enrages people.
If Sue Gray deals with a conflict of interest by leaving the Civil Service, where's the issue now?
As an aside I wonder why it took three years for the video to come to light. Who was biding their time and why? Why did no-one in the video consider how it might look if the video was leaked?
But even then, Pontefract Castle isn't the worst thing to visit. Not much to write home about in Goole though...
Some of which designed to make an area look as affluent as possible and some designed to make an area look as deprived as possible.