FrancisUrquhart said:

Former US President Joe Biden has signed with a Los Angeles talent agency - marking a significant step in shaping his post-presidency career.

The signing marks a reunion with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which previously represented him from 2017 to 2020.

Didn't realise it was April 1st.

algarkirk said:

glw said:

Trump signs order to create sovereign wealth fund that could buy TikTok

Clearly a more important thing to do than international aid programmes or having an education department.

One day, don't know when, the old formula that USA dollar is a reserve currency so it doesn't matter how much debt it has and can always borrow/print a few quadrillion more (eg to create a sovereign wealth fund out of money it doesn't possess) will be found to have a subtle fatal flaw in it. I can't imagine what it might be but there will be one.

One flaw might be that BRICS countries stop using the dollar for trade between themselves, which is why Trump panicked the other day.

MattW said:

Foxy said:

Carnyx said:

Alphabet_Soup said:

Carnyx said:

algarkirk said:

biggles said:

Driver said:

kle4 said:

MattW said:

DecrepiterJohnL said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

TimS said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Taz said:

maxh said:

Can I defend Wetherspoon's please?

As one of those unfortunate types (I know, I know, we're a rare breed on this forum) who definitely have to watch their pennies when going to the pub, the 'double breakfast' whereby one can order two whole Wetherspoon's breakfasts and not have to chop off one's own toenails for sale on the black market in recompense pleases me greatly.

Easy to be sniffy at Spoons. Nothing wrong with it. The beer is decent and doesn't cost the earth. The food is fine for what it is.

Plenty of remainers knock Spoons for no better reason than they don't like the owner.

The young people love Spoons. Once my daughter turned 18 she practically lived at the Brockley Barge.

There was I time I also frequented the Barge. Back then it was just about the only pub in the area where you didn’t get stared at when you walked in. Didn’t realise it is now a youth hang out though.

And you are wrong on McDonald’s. It’s excellent. Knocks spots off KFC, BK, Morley’s, even Pizza Hut (to which I’m a bit partial). So much so that last weekend I bought some chuck steak, got it minced, and am going to do a snackmasters-style attempt with my daughter (who’s a big McD fan) to perfectly replicate a McDonald’s cheeseburger. Complete with tiny slivers of iceberg lettuce, microwaved (it works) tiny chopped onions, gherkin, the works.

Pizza Hut?!

A Pizza Hut, a Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut
A Pizza Hut, a Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut
McDonald's, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut
McDonald's, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOC9d17vASc&t=64s

Is that not the Yank version?

The British one has Happy Eater in it.

Then British children were singing the Yank version 30 years ago when I was a child.

When I learned it (mid-late 80s), that one was the first verse and the second verse was:

A Burger King, a Burger King, a Little Chef and a Burger King
Happy Eater, Happy Eater, a Little Chef and a Burger King

Of course, Little Chef and Happy Eater are no longer with us. LC's owner bought HE's owner in the mid 90s and converted all HEs to LC, but that was the beginning of the end - LC was a shadow of its former self by the mid Noughties and all gone by 2018.

Wait, hang on, Little Chef has gone? The number of times I stop at services and never noticed. That’s quite sad. I must have just stopped going…

Steady on. I'm a pleb and regard Spoons as expensive posh fine wining and dining for special occasions only, but I drew the line at Little Chef.

Eh? A colleague and I used to call in regularly on the one on the Fosse Way somewhere in the Cotdswolds when heading down to Somerset etc. for work/cider/Yeovilton air show. It was great!

Hiking the Offa's Dyke footpath a few years ago I found myself in Monmouth in need of an eatery that would welcome without condescension someone who looked (and smelt) like they'd walked 160 miles to get there. Wetherspoons it was. I'd rate it as perfectly adequate, which in my book is high praise indeed.

Many, many years ago, as a student I was sent with the lab tech and the van to collect some stuff on an overnighter. When we'd got to the hotel and dumped our bags, he insisted on going to one of those chain steak places (I forget the name but it was c. 1980 and the typical menu was prawn cocktail, steak and chips, and Black Forest, albeit with some options). He explained that at least he knew what to expect, and could eat and digest it, when he was tired after driving all day and had a long day the next day packing the gear and driving home and unloading. It was a lesson in its little way: I've never been too dismissive of such places since - so long as the stuff is edible.

Ah, I used to love a Berni Inn.

I rather fancy this place next time I am in The Smoke, it's a real Eighties time capsule:

https://oslocourtrestaurant.co.uk/

Ooof. Sorry.

£55-70 per head is a lot for an 80s recreation.

That's in the same price range as a fixed price or tasting menu at the Veeraswamy. Probably including wine.

https://www.veeraswamy.com/menu/

I went there for my birthday last year. Trust me, it's good.

DecrepiterJohnL said:

glw said:

Trump signs order to create sovereign wealth fund that could buy TikTok

Clearly a more important thing to do than international aid programmes or having an education department.

Will this sovereign wealth fund invest in crypto? Like, say, Trump and Tesla have done. If so then cui bono?

Nemo.

El Salvador offers to house US prisoners.

https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1886606794614587573

Decent article laying out the probabilities.

Is Trump’s trade war with Mexico and Canada over?
Why the tariffs might — and might not — still happen.
https://www.vox.com/politics/398024/trump-tariffs-mexico-canada-trudeau-sheinbaum-trade-war

How will all the tariff fans feel about all this if it turns out the whole thing was no more than a bluff ?
Disappointed ? Or will they switch seamlessly to supporting the non imposition ?

Nigelb said:

Decent article laying out the probabilities.

Is Trump’s trade war with Mexico and Canada over?
Why the tariffs might — and might not — still happen.
https://www.vox.com/politics/398024/trump-tariffs-mexico-canada-trudeau-sheinbaum-trade-war

How will all the tariff fans feel about all this if it turns out the whole thing was no more than a bluff ?
Disappointed ? Or will they switch seamlessly to supporting the non imposition ?

As I said the other day, Trump uses tariffs to force compliance as well as for more usual purposes, and it seems to have worked.

When it comes to trade wars, it is possible Trump has been talked down by Musk and Fox News, or was spooked by the sharp falls in crypto and on Wall Street.

Nigelb said:

Selebian said:

Wait, Starmer had a voice coach? What on earth did he sound like before?

It’s like trying to teach the tone deaf to sing.
Not completely impossible, but a very tough gig, and they’re never going to sing well.

It's not just a question of the voice, it's the lack of sincerity and the bullshit that emanates. Consider what Starmer said before and after the Election .. that's why noone trusts him. It's just come much earlier to him than it did Blair.

DecrepiterJohnL said:

Nigelb said:

Decent article laying out the probabilities.

Is Trump’s trade war with Mexico and Canada over?
Why the tariffs might — and might not — still happen.
https://www.vox.com/politics/398024/trump-tariffs-mexico-canada-trudeau-sheinbaum-trade-war

How will all the tariff fans feel about all this if it turns out the whole thing was no more than a bluff ?
Disappointed ? Or will they switch seamlessly to supporting the non imposition ?

As I said the other day, Trump uses tariffs to force compliance as well as for more usual purposes, and it seems to have worked.

When it comes to trade wars, it is possible Trump has been talked down by Musk and Fox News, or was spooked by the sharp falls in crypto and on Wall Street.

I think it was more Mr Market having a word in Trump’s ear than Musk. I like to think that someday soon all the Occupy Wall Street loons and masses anti-capitalists will be thanking Wall Street and co for being the only break on Trump’s policies that he will take notice of.

Now if we can only get them to tell Trump that Tulsi Gabbard will cause a US property price crash we are good.

Nigelb said:

France will double its military defense budget, securing new innovative projects, French President Macron said
https://x.com/front_ukrainian/status/1886410258714706093

Perhaps also recognising that there’s a decent business opportunity for supplying weapons to those who no longer trust the US as a reliable ally ?

Why would anybody take that posturing Froggy dwarf seriously when he's on his way out and can't even pass a budget containing the current level of defence expenditure?

MJW said:

DecrepiterJohnL said:

Nigelb said:

Decent article laying out the probabilities.

Is Trump’s trade war with Mexico and Canada over?
Why the tariffs might — and might not — still happen.
https://www.vox.com/politics/398024/trump-tariffs-mexico-canada-trudeau-sheinbaum-trade-war

How will all the tariff fans feel about all this if it turns out the whole thing was no more than a bluff ?
Disappointed ? Or will they switch seamlessly to supporting the non imposition ?

As I said the other day, Trump uses tariffs to force compliance as well as for more usual purposes, and it seems to have worked.

When it comes to trade wars, it is possible Trump has been talked down by Musk and Fox News, or was spooked by the sharp falls in crypto and on Wall Street.

Has it 'worked' or have Canada and Mexico come up with or brought forward stuff they were doing anyway to tackle non-existent or more complex problems and packaged it in a way that makes Trump think he has a win. Canada appear to have just appointed a 'Fentanyl Tsar' to tackle the problem of just 59 pounds of the stuff that was smuggled to the US over the past 3 years. Such a large amount it could be one person doing it.

Meanwhile Mexico has said it is moving 10,000 troops to the US border - but given the Mexican government is incredibly angry about guns coming from the US into Mexico the other way - what's the betting they spend their time stopping that?

It’s easy enough to announce 10k troops to stop the cartels but then keep them safely in the barracks doing nothing. I’d see the last 48hrs as a shot across the bow to make Mexico’s govt think twice about performative action. I imagine we will see similar wrt the EU and announced (but not yet delivered) defence spending.

MJW said:

DecrepiterJohnL said:

Nigelb said:

Decent article laying out the probabilities.

Is Trump’s trade war with Mexico and Canada over?
Why the tariffs might — and might not — still happen.
https://www.vox.com/politics/398024/trump-tariffs-mexico-canada-trudeau-sheinbaum-trade-war

How will all the tariff fans feel about all this if it turns out the whole thing was no more than a bluff ?
Disappointed ? Or will they switch seamlessly to supporting the non imposition ?

As I said the other day, Trump uses tariffs to force compliance as well as for more usual purposes, and it seems to have worked.

When it comes to trade wars, it is possible Trump has been talked down by Musk and Fox News, or was spooked by the sharp falls in crypto and on Wall Street.

Has it 'worked' or have Canada and Mexico come up with or brought forward stuff they were doing anyway to tackle non-existent or more complex problems and packaged it in a way that makes Trump think he has a win. Canada appear to have just appointed a 'Fentanyl Tsar' to tackle the problem of just 59 pounds of the stuff that was smuggled to the US over the past 3 years. Such a large amount it could be one person doing it.

Meanwhile Mexico has said it is moving 10,000 troops to the US border - but given the Mexican government is incredibly angry about guns coming from the US into Mexico the other way - what's the betting they spend their time stopping that?

Yes, it worked – or ‘worked’ – even if the same or better results could not have come from standard diplomacy or even a quick phone call. Think of Jim Hacker measuring success by counting newspaper stories.

Battlebus said:

Definitely not a cult.

So many people having surreal fat finger moments when trying to type an 'n'.

The Environmental movement is eating itself.

Peak,Guardian this.

The movement is too,white

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/03/environmental-groups-in-uk-still-very-white-especially-at-the-top

kinabalu said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

kinabalu said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

Gardenwalker said:

I can’t help thinking that Trump simply woke up, saw the stock market down, and various anti-tariff noises from the business community, and - decided to twist.

Mexico had a deal with Biden to hold back the migrants using their army in his tough re‐election year, thereafter to be released, presumably especially in the event of a wrong result. Trump was well aware of this fact and has used the threat of tariffs to keep the inevitable flood from being allowed to happen. It's fairly sensible (unlike the Canada thing as far as I can see), and some PBers need better info sources on Trump. The Spectator's Americano podcast is pretty good .

I'll venture it isn't.

Well there is a lamentable lack of Rory Stewart or Alistair Campbell, so I could see you finding it a tough listen.

Who've we got on there then?

Just Freddy Gray and some guests, often Americans from America.

biggles said:

rottenborough said:

Gardenwalker said:

Why is Big G trying to spin this as a win for Trump?
He’s got nothing and he looks like a total twat.

Not to the Cult!

They see, in their minds eye, Mexican soldiers lining the border and stopping that fentanyl in its tracks.

Yup. Trump has signalled his support for domestic manufacturing and his opponents can be characterised as being against it. We all know that’s bollocks but it’s the game he’s playing. If you want to beat him, you have to actually have a plan for the poor sods who lost out (and they did lose out) to globalisation.

One thing I wonder (speculating, probably) is whether Trump's attitude to Taiwan is coloured by the pivot of TSMC to invest heavily in the USA - in which his 1st term rhetoric had a part in triggering.

Perhaps he thinks he does not need Taiwan as much, now? It would be something of a fit with Trump's bugger-thy-neighbour trade policies.

Jim_Miller said:

Since you are discussing crime, here's a little hint: 'Elaine Kamark of the Harvard Kennedy School and William Galston of the University of Maryland and Brookings Institution, agree with Moynihan. Writing for the Progressive Policy Institute in 1990, they say "The relationship [between crime and single-parent families, which are typically fatherless families] is so strong that controlling for family configuration erases the relationship between race and crime and between low income and crime. The relationship shows up time and again in the literature."'
source: The War Against Boys (new and revised edition) by Christina Hoff Sommers, p. 120.

So, if you see a teenage boy walking toward you, worry more about whether he has a father in his life than whether has a pocket knife.

(I have not seen any data, or even any reporting on this, but I think it likely that few of Jeffrey Epstein's victims had fathers in their lives. Daughters need fathers, too.)

I wonder if the same is true of Trump's and his friend's victims?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/14/teen-models-powerful-men-when-donald-trump-hosted-look-of-the-year

This was Melania's route in aiui.

(Mar-a-Lago was one of Epstein's recruiting grounds.)

MattW said:

biggles said:

rottenborough said:

Gardenwalker said:

Why is Big G trying to spin this as a win for Trump?
He’s got nothing and he looks like a total twat.

Not to the Cult!

They see, in their minds eye, Mexican soldiers lining the border and stopping that fentanyl in its tracks.

Yup. Trump has signalled his support for domestic manufacturing and his opponents can be characterised as being against it. We all know that’s bollocks but it’s the game he’s playing. If you want to beat him, you have to actually have a plan for the poor sods who lost out (and they did lose out) to globalisation.

One thing I wonder (speculating, probably) is whether Trump's attitude to Taiwan is coloured by the pivot of TSMC to invest heavily in the USA - in which his 1st term rhetoric had a part in triggering.

Perhaps he thinks he does not need Taiwan as much, now? It would be something of a fit with Trump's bugger-thy-neighbour trade policies.

In which case he's ignorant.

It would be a good decade, if then, to replicate TSMC's capacity in the US.

And handing it to China economically disastrous for the US.

..

bondegezou said:

williamglenn said:

It sounds like there are serious questions to answer about the Sheffield stabbing. The perpetrator had apparently previously taken a machete into school and threatened to stab another student.

On latest figures, there are 244 knife homicides per year in the UK. That's one of the lowest rates in the whole world (per capita). It's half the rate they have in Germany, and a third of the rate they have in the Netherlands. The rate is five times higher in Puerto Rico and nearly seven times higher in the US. It's about eight times higher in Romania. Maybe it's worth reflecting that, while each such death is a tragedy, we are doing well overall as a nation.

I blame Amazon for all the under 18 machete sales.

Amused by our Mr G’s reluctance overnight to recognise that the Daily Mail just might have been feeding him spin in place of news!

Sandpit said:

Dura_Ace said:

IanB2 said:

JosiasJessop said:

Sandpit said:

NTSB investigation update on the plane crash in Washington DC.

https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/DCA25MA108.aspx

My guess for the root cause is simple and obvious: allowing flightpaths that conflict in that manner, controlled only by sight from one aircraft to another. Especially at night.

It was an accident waiting to happen.

There will be many other causal factors; and the usual idiots will jump on whichever one best fits their worldview ("Oh my god! A female pilot!!!"). But the main one will be that those flightpaths were allowed.

Probably. Although there is supposed to be altitude separation - and back in my days of flying in FAA airspace, they were always red hot in making sure that on transits like that, you stuck to your assigned altitude. The question is why the military helicopter was so sloppy (or deliberately chose to cut a corner, according to choice) and ended up above where it was supposed to be.

FAA have no jurisdiction over military flights. When I was on my USN exchange we used to follow ATC guidance where possible but we always had the option, and sometimes exercised it, of telling ATC we would assume responsibility for our own separation and deconfliction. Sometimes we didn't even bother telling them and just did it.

Yes, but if you say you’ll maintain responsibility for your own separation and deconfliction, and then have a mid-air with a civilian aircraft…

Unless they are on an active mission, within controlled airspace military aircraft would be expected to communicate with and comply with any instructions from ATC. Most military flights take place in uncontrolled airspace, but the DC base is an exception since their main task appears to be flying top American politicians around town.

rottenborough said:

Gardenwalker said:

Why is Big G trying to spin this as a win for Trump?
He’s got nothing and he looks like a total twat.

Not to the Cult!

They see, in their minds eye, Mexican soldiers lining the border and stopping that fentanyl in its tracks.

Hmm. Why would Mexico want to deploy an army on the border of its aggressive and unpredictable neighbour?

We're in Brer Rabbit territory when Trump considers this a concession.

bondegezou said:

viewcode said:

rottenborough said:

viewcode said:

Andy_JS said:

rottenborough said:

biggles said:

rottenborough said:

Gardenwalker said:

Why is Big G trying to spin this as a win for Trump?
He’s got nothing and he looks like a total twat.

Not to the Cult!

They see, in their minds eye, Mexican soldiers lining the border and stopping that fentanyl in its tracks.

Yup. Trump has signalled his support for domestic manufacturing and his opponents can be characterised as being against it. We all know that’s bollocks but it’s the game he’s playing. If you want to beat him, you have to actually have a plan for the poor sods who lost out (and they did lose out) to globalisation.

The Dems have so much work to do.

Complete root and branch review and rework of much they stand for.

Why has the american working class abandoned them? Indeed why do they despise the party?

Huge challenge. Possibly too great a challenge? Are there enough senior people left in the Dems who can do a Bill Clinton - understand the present, sympathise, emote with the present and yet raise the eyes to a better time?

Hyper-liberalism must go. Focus on identity and angels on pins must go. Any crap from a liberal arts university Phd written in last twenty years has to go.

Economics. Pocket book.

Common sense. Not Trump's common sense but the alternative.

Agree 100%. Hyperliberalism is ruining liberalism, which most people in the west still support.

If I may politely disagree. The Dems need to construct an argument on what they want to do and persuade the public that it's better than Trump. The "ditch the hyperliberalism thing " (haven't got to that part in the book yet, I'm still stuck in the Russian dissident vignettes: Gray is arsing around again, not getting to the point) simply removes policies. The Dems have to add policies: specifically, what can they offer that's better than Trump.

Policies that recognize how people actually live their lives and how active government could improve things, especially economics.

I don't think that works. "Deliverism" did not produce votes in 2024. The Dems have instead to construct coalitions by bringing disparate groups of voters onto their side. The obvious example is the unions, who were split, and any Dem party that has lost the unions cannot win. The Dems tried identity politics but - whoops - the Hispanics went to the Reps. What groups of people can the Dems assemble to get to 50%+1, and how?

The Dems won the Hispanic vote, just by less than they had 4 years before.

The Democrats do need a pause for reflection, but this is way overegged. They lost by less than 1% of the vote, not a landslide.

While most MAGA are cultists, there will be some that think.

Malmesbury said:

JosiasJessop said:

Sandpit said:

NTSB investigation update on the plane crash in Washington DC.

https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/DCA25MA108.aspx

My guess for the root cause is simple and obvious: allowing flightpaths that conflict in that manner, controlled only by sight from one aircraft to another. Especially at night.

It was an accident waiting to happen.

There will be many other causal factors; and the usual idiots will jump on whichever one best fits their worldview ("Oh my god! A female pilot!!!"). But the main one will be that those flightpaths were allowed.

I haven’t seen it mentioned, but Night Vision Goggles have a long history of involvement in accidents - they tend to screw up things like depth perception.

The modern ones are better, but one reason they train a lot with them, is to learn to deal with it.

Blancalirio and another Youtuber have mentioned potential role of NVGs in the accident; the NTSB have also talked about them in their briefings. Currently they don't know if the crew were wearing them or not at the time of the accident.

Luckyguy1983 said:

..

MattW said:

Scott_xP said:

@newseye.bsky.social‬

TRUMP TRADE WAR UPDATE:

Colombia: Lasted 4 hours - Trump accepts what was already offered.
🇨🇴

Mexico: Lasted one weekend - Trump accepts worse than before.
🇲🇽

Canada: Lasted one weekend - Trump accepts what was already agreed.
🇨🇦

Two-step process established:
1. Try to look tough
2. Just fold

🤡

I've just been listening to a couple of the recommended Spectator Americano podcasts.

TBH so far it's basically Freddie Gray sucking off Trump spokespeople.

Obsequious interviews with soft questions, and not even challenging obvious BS. Listening to a chap talking about Colombia, it's almost like a reprise of Oliver North.

I'll listen to a couple more and comment in a day or

MattW said:

Scott_xP said:

@newseye.bsky.social‬

TRUMP TRADE WAR UPDATE:

Colombia: Lasted 4 hours - Trump accepts what was already offered.
🇨🇴

Mexico: Lasted one weekend - Trump accepts worse than before.
🇲🇽

Canada: Lasted one weekend - Trump accepts what was already agreed.
🇨🇦

Two-step process established:
1. Try to look tough
2. Just fold

🤡

I've just been listening to a couple of the recommended Spectator Americano podcasts.

TBH so far it's basically Freddie Gray sucking off Trump spokespeople.

Obsequious interviews with soft questions, and not even challenging obvious BS. Listening to a chap talking about Colombia, it's almost like a reprise of Oliver North.

I'll listen to a couple more and comment in a day or so.

I don't know if you've ever watched a podcast before, but you don't usually see the host give their guest a Paxman style grilling to get 'gotcha' moments - usually they want to know what that person has to say.

It doesn't matter what form of programme it is, if an interviewee is spewing fairy stories it is incumbent upon the interviewer to question them - otherwise it is a prompted speech not an interview. I think that what is going on is that the people in the Spectator ecosystem want to promote a Republican Right / Trumpist line - but I want to listen to a few more before making a case for that.

As it happens, I made my first podcast in early September 2004, around one month after Adam Curry had coined the term - not long after the concept of attaching audio to an RSS feed had been exploited.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

At that time we wrote our own software to create the RSS 2.0 feeds.

The questioning of nonsense is a matter of professionalism, not form. In the early days of podcasting the best guidance on that came from a Canadian broadcaster / internetter called Tod Maffin.

(Tod Maffin: https://bsky.app/profile/todmaffin.com)

I was doing video podcasts (aka vodcasts) from early 2005, but it was hard work in those days, as the hardware was not really up to it and the software quite expensive on a PC.