The Tories dont need to replace Badenoch, just get behind Starmer.
The new Tory Tony has arrived,
Blair never hammered farmers and business owners and pensioners in the way Starmer has, immigration wise he has done nothing Rishi didn't and benefit wise he is hitting the disabled and threatening to merge JSA with EMA which would make our welfare state even less contributory than it is now
This is the joyous situation we are in. We get all the piled on misery and no upside.
Did I ever tell you Rachel Reeves is totally shit ?
The Tories dont need to replace Badenoch, just get behind Starmer.
The new Tory Tony has arrived,
Blair never hammered farmers and business owners and pensioners in the way Starmer has, immigration wise he has done nothing Rishi didn't and benefit wise he is hitting the disabled and threatening to merge JSA with EMA which would make our welfare state even less contributory than it is now
Did anyone notice that they’ve just terminated the community fund that helps local villages buy pubs to keep them open as community facilities rather than see them developed
Kremlin sources say the call with Trump went “very well.” Translation: They played him like a banjo.
Even somebody as delusional as Donald Trump will know he's looking weak. A reaction is inevitable. Something tough. Something strong. I think I can predict what it will be. He'll bomb some Houthis.
For a genius peacemaker, he’s looking a bit warfighty.
So long as it's the small boy with glasses he's facing. And preferably Muslim.
I supported Jenrick, and have been pretty disparaging on Kemi, but yesterday she gave probably her best intervention so far, and did it in an authentically 'Kemi' way - that is to say a modern 'Ted Talk' sort of feel.
The response seems to have been very good, and it opens up a fruitful avenue of opposition as Labour begins to inflict increasing hardship to meet the Net Zero target.
The environmental and climate justification for moving to Net Zero isn’t going to go away and is likely going to get more immediate and obvious in the next decade and a half.
We can argue about how we get to Net Zero but not about whether we should and Badenoch’s response was more about pandering to the climate change deniers than dealing with the real world.
Conservatives have traditionally been pragmatic types and have adapted to a changing world when required - oddly enough I take the view Conservatives could probably get us to Net Zero quicker and easier than Labour but to pander to those unwilling or unable to accept the world is changing isn’t Conservative at all and is part of the reason why the likes of Badenoch and Jenrick are seen as irrelevant to the current debate.
Badenoch said we could still reach net zero just not by 2050
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
Imagine if the Axis Powers had won, we'd all be driving German cars and looking and listening to Japanese consumer electronics.
Fascism has always appealed to bullies, and (more importantly), weak people who wish to share in the glory of the bully.
The curious thing is that the sort of people fascists glorify, Confederates, Nazis, Spartans, were in reality, pathetic losers. Degenerate democracies have by far, a better military record.
I supported Jenrick, and have been pretty disparaging on Kemi, but yesterday she gave probably her best intervention so far, and did it in an authentically 'Kemi' way - that is to say a modern 'Ted Talk' sort of feel.
The response seems to have been very good, and it opens up a fruitful avenue of opposition as Labour begins to inflict increasing hardship to meet the Net Zero target.
The environmental and climate justification for moving to Net Zero isn’t going to go away and is likely going to get more immediate and obvious in the next decade and a half.
We can argue about how we get to Net Zero but not about whether we should and Badenoch’s response was more about pandering to the climate change deniers than dealing with the real world.
Conservatives have traditionally been pragmatic types and have adapted to a changing world when required - oddly enough I take the view Conservatives could probably get us to Net Zero quicker and easier than Labour but to pander to those unwilling or unable to accept the world is changing isn’t Conservative at all and is part of the reason why the likes of Badenoch and Jenrick are seen as irrelevant to the current debate.
Badenoch said we could still reach net zero just not by 2050
Not a lot of point reaching net zero when it is too late is it? I have no idea if 2050 is a random date or not, but we keep pushing out the deadlines to doing stuff and we can see the impact it is having.
The Tories would be in a much better place if they had elected James Cleverly .
As it is they’ve ended up with Badenoch who is likely to come under a lot of pressure after the local elections .
It’s irrelevant whether the seats being fought were from that high watermark in 2021. If you’re the official opposition you should be doing well against an unpopular government. I think the Tories are in denial over Badenoch . She’s just not up to it .
I doubt Cleverly would be doing much better, Labour are already down below 2019 levels and not with much more to squeeze and he wouldn't have won as many Reform voters back as Jenrick nor as many LD voters back as Tugendhat
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
I think that is wrong. Twitter is not full of anything. Your twitter feed might be full of this, that or the other, but that is on account of your browsing habits (similar to the proverbial Thai hooker story).
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
I remember some dreadful Saturday night quiz with Dale Winton when the 20 something year old contestant was asked which of the 3 named battles was the most recent and he said laughingly that he had never heard of the Battle of Britain. Agree about the political ignorance on Pointless.
Although arguably the “battle of Britain” was a series of engagements over an extended period not a “battle” in the singular.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
Imagine if the Axis Powers had won, we'd all be driving German cars and looking and listening to Japanese consumer electronics.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
And yet, my nieces know the phrase "divorced, beheaded, died" (admittedly this is because my sister's friend plays the Six album in her car...), but everyone knows about The Tudors, don't they?
Tudorism is an established cultural industry, except in Scotland, the victim of the Rough Wooing.
The very most damaging measure, invisible to most if not all PB types ofc, is the change to NI next month. This will drive people out of business and predominantly affect those at the lower end of the salary scale. It can't be overstated how damaging this will be.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
Imagine if the Axis Powers had won, we'd all be driving German cars and looking and listening to Japanese consumer electronics.
Fascism has always appealed to bullies, and (more importantly), weak people who wish to share in the glory of the bully.
The curious thing is that the sort of people fascists glorify, Confederates, Nazis, Spartans, were in reality, pathetic losers.
I don’t know enough Ancient Greek history but that seems pretty harsh on the Spartans! Even if they had a weird culture.
There was the Spartan myth, and the Spartan reality. Sparta’s military record was actually no better than average, and from the time of Philip II, it was reduced to a minor power.
I supported Jenrick, and have been pretty disparaging on Kemi, but yesterday she gave probably her best intervention so far, and did it in an authentically 'Kemi' way - that is to say a modern 'Ted Talk' sort of feel.
The response seems to have been very good, and it opens up a fruitful avenue of opposition as Labour begins to inflict increasing hardship to meet the Net Zero target.
The environmental and climate justification for moving to Net Zero isn’t going to go away and is likely going to get more immediate and obvious in the next decade and a half.
We can argue about how we get to Net Zero but not about whether we should and Badenoch’s response was more about pandering to the climate change deniers than dealing with the real world.
Conservatives have traditionally been pragmatic types and have adapted to a changing world when required - oddly enough I take the view Conservatives could probably get us to Net Zero quicker and easier than Labour but to pander to those unwilling or unable to accept the world is changing isn’t Conservative at all and is part of the reason why the likes of Badenoch and Jenrick are seen as irrelevant to the current debate.
Badenoch said we could still reach net zero just not by 2050
If the world hasn’t reached net zero by 2050 we’re probably all fucked anyway.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
And yet, my nieces know the phrase "divorced, beheaded, died" (admittedly this is because my sister's friend plays the Six album in her car...), but everyone knows about The Tudors, don't they?
Tudorism is an established cultural industry, except in Scotland, the victim of the Rough Wooing.
There are a few sites associated with Mary QoS, no?
The Tories dont need to replace Badenoch, just get behind Starmer.
The new Tory Tony has arrived,
Blair never hammered farmers and business owners and pensioners in the way Starmer has, immigration wise he has done nothing Rishi didn't and benefit wise he is hitting the disabled and threatening to merge JSA with EMA which would make our welfare state even less contributory than it is now
Did anyone notice that they’ve just terminated the community fund that helps local villages buy pubs to keep them open as community facilities rather than see them developed
Yeah the ACV thing is more spoken about than actually used. It's quite a formidable task for a "community" to take over and run a business.
Not that there aren't examples of it working (and almost always with pubs) but it is a big ask.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
And yet, my nieces know the phrase "divorced, beheaded, died" (admittedly this is because my sister's friend plays the Six album in her car...), but everyone knows about The Tudors, don't they?
Is there a more useless mnemonic than divorced, beheaded, died etc? What happened to Anne Boleyn? Ah, so now we need another mnemonic naming the queens in order to get anything useful from the first mnemonic.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
And yet, my nieces know the phrase "divorced, beheaded, died" (admittedly this is because my sister's friend plays the Six album in her car...), but everyone knows about The Tudors, don't they?
Tudorism is an established cultural industry, except in Scotland, the victim of the Rough Wooing.
I can't overstate how lucky I was to learn school history in Scotland!
I supported Jenrick, and have been pretty disparaging on Kemi, but yesterday she gave probably her best intervention so far, and did it in an authentically 'Kemi' way - that is to say a modern 'Ted Talk' sort of feel.
The response seems to have been very good, and it opens up a fruitful avenue of opposition as Labour begins to inflict increasing hardship to meet the Net Zero target.
The environmental and climate justification for moving to Net Zero isn’t going to go away and is likely going to get more immediate and obvious in the next decade and a half.
We can argue about how we get to Net Zero but not about whether we should and Badenoch’s response was more about pandering to the climate change deniers than dealing with the real world.
Conservatives have traditionally been pragmatic types and have adapted to a changing world when required - oddly enough I take the view Conservatives could probably get us to Net Zero quicker and easier than Labour but to pander to those unwilling or unable to accept the world is changing isn’t Conservative at all and is part of the reason why the likes of Badenoch and Jenrick are seen as irrelevant to the current debate.
Badenoch said we could still reach net zero just not by 2050
If the world hasn’t reached net zero by 2050 we’re probably all fucked anyway.
And even if we did if the US, China, Brazil and India hadn't the same would apply at least in terms of more climate change
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
And yet, my nieces know the phrase "divorced, beheaded, died" (admittedly this is because my sister's friend plays the Six album in her car...), but everyone knows about The Tudors, don't they?
Is there a more useless mnemonic than divorced, beheaded, died etc? What happened to Anne Boleyn? Ah, so now we need another mnemonic naming the queens in order to get anything useful from the first mnemonic.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
I think that is wrong. Twitter is not full of anything. Your twitter feed might be full of this, that or the other, but that is on account of your browsing habits (similar to the proverbial Thai hooker story).
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
That used to be the case, but is no longer. The algorithm pushes Muskoid facist views, and paid for blue tick trolls.
If you want to choose your own content then BlueSky is the place.
The Tories dont need to replace Badenoch, just get behind Starmer.
The new Tory Tony has arrived,
Ah but we also have worker rights, higher business taxes, and a spanking for farmers and private schools. It's one broad tent. Can it stay up when the wind starts blowing? If it can we're talking decades of domination, otherwise all bets are off and anything could happen. IMO a crucial question is whether or not there arises a serious electoral challenge to Labour from its left. If not I think their position is structurally strong and they will win a second term.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
I think that is wrong. Twitter is not full of anything. Your twitter feed might be full of this, that or the other, but that is on account of your browsing habits (similar to the proverbial Thai hooker story).
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
That's really not the case these days.
Every couple of weeks, along with the usual stuff you're interested in, there's a rash of some particular set of posts, and one of the current flavours is neo-nazi. My only interaction with them is to block them, and still they pop up. I'm fully aware that if you reply, or quote such posts, then it disposes the algo to feed you more of them; that is not what is happening.
Kremlin sources say the call with Trump went “very well.” Translation: They played him like a banjo.
Even somebody as delusional as Donald Trump will know he's looking weak. A reaction is inevitable. Something tough. Something strong. I think I can predict what it will be. He'll bomb some Houthis.
For a genius peacemaker, he’s looking a bit warfighty.
So long as it's the small boy with glasses he's facing. And preferably Muslim.
This is an interesting comment and explains the "Queers for Palestine" phenomenon.
I'm the mind of mainly leftists the world consists of binary choices and dynamics. If you are perceived to be "weak" or oppressed then you have common cause with every other group that is perceived similarly. No matter the "truth" of the situation or context. Or indeed the nature of the group you have deemed worthy of your support. You have to take a side.
The Tories dont need to replace Badenoch, just get behind Starmer.
The new Tory Tony has arrived,
Blair never hammered farmers and business owners and pensioners in the way Starmer has, immigration wise he has done nothing Rishi didn't and benefit wise he is hitting the disabled and threatening to merge JSA with EMA which would make our welfare state even less contributory than it is now
Did anyone notice that they’ve just terminated the community fund that helps local villages buy pubs to keep them open as community facilities rather than see them developed
Indeed, who on earth would bother voting for Starmer and Reeves now? If you want leftwing politics and to protect the public sector and welfare from cuts you may as well vote Green, if you want a closer relationship with the EU and more community minded politics LD, if you want Brexit as now and lower tax the Tories and if you want a harder line on immigration Reform, if you are a Muslim there are increasingly Independent MPs and candidates to support.
The only people who might vote for them with any enthusiasm are executives of big companies and developers
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
I think that is wrong. Twitter is not full of anything. Your twitter feed might be full of this, that or the other, but that is on account of your browsing habits (similar to the proverbial Thai hooker story).
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
That used to be the case, but is no longer. The algorithm pushes Muskoid facist views, and paid for blue tick trolls.
If you want to choose your own content then BlueSky is the place.
It obviously makes you feel better to think that is the case. But you are in the top 0.3% of politically engaged people so of course you'll get political views pushed to you.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
Imagine if the Axis Powers had won, we'd all be driving German cars and looking and listening to Japanese consumer electronics.
Fascism has always appealed to bullies, and (more importantly), weak people who wish to share in the glory of the bully.
The curious thing is that the sort of people fascists glorify, Confederates, Nazis, Spartans, were in reality, pathetic losers. Degenerate democracies have by far, a better military record.
Sorry you missed the irony in my ironic post.
The Trump experiment could go on for decades before it finally crumbles. Look at Pinochet's Chile as your model. Plenty of opportunities to fill stadia to the brim with Socialists (Democrats?) before we see the day mind.
Calls to amend payout rules for wrongly convicted ... ...following a small but significant law change in 2014, if a victim of a miscarriage of justice in England and Wales wants to receive compensation, they must not only be cleared, but also demonstrate they are innocent - in effect "reversing the burden of proof"... About 93% of applications for compensation have been rejected by the Ministry of Justice since 2016, government figures show. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8rkvxlkpx2o
The Tories dont need to replace Badenoch, just get behind Starmer.
The new Tory Tony has arrived,
Blair never hammered farmers and business owners and pensioners in the way Starmer has, immigration wise he has done nothing Rishi didn't and benefit wise he is hitting the disabled and threatening to merge JSA with EMA which would make our welfare state even less contributory than it is now
Did anyone notice that they’ve just terminated the community fund that helps local villages buy pubs to keep them open as community facilities rather than see them developed
Indeed, who on earth would bother voting for Starmer and Reeves now? If you want leftwing politics and to protect the public sector and welfare from cuts you may as well vote Green, if you want a closer relationship with the EU and more community minded politics LD, if you want Brexit as now and lower tax the Tories and if you want a harder line on immigration Reform, if you are a Muslim there are increasingly Independent MPs and candidates to support.
The only people who might vote for them with any enthusiasm are executives of big companies and developers
Well, you might vote for them to avoid a return to Conservative government, but I take your point.
I supported Jenrick, and have been pretty disparaging on Kemi, but yesterday she gave probably her best intervention so far, and did it in an authentically 'Kemi' way - that is to say a modern 'Ted Talk' sort of feel.
The response seems to have been very good, and it opens up a fruitful avenue of opposition as Labour begins to inflict increasing hardship to meet the Net Zero target.
The environmental and climate justification for moving to Net Zero isn’t going to go away and is likely going to get more immediate and obvious in the next decade and a half.
We can argue about how we get to Net Zero but not about whether we should and Badenoch’s response was more about pandering to the climate change deniers than dealing with the real world.
Conservatives have traditionally been pragmatic types and have adapted to a changing world when required - oddly enough I take the view Conservatives could probably get us to Net Zero quicker and easier than Labour but to pander to those unwilling or unable to accept the world is changing isn’t Conservative at all and is part of the reason why the likes of Badenoch and Jenrick are seen as irrelevant to the current debate.
Badenoch said we could still reach net zero just not by 2050
If the world hasn’t reached net zero by 2050 we’re probably all fucked anyway.
And even if we did if the US, China, Brazil and India hadn't the same would apply at least in terms of more climate change
Ah, this old argument “if other countries aren’t going to do it, then why should we?”.
It’s called leading by example. A lot of other countries will try to reach Net Zero, probably quicker than us but we are one of the world’s leading economies and we can and should be in the vanguard.
Climate change and other environmental impacts will be felt everywhere even in those countries which prioritise selfish economic growth over the wider benefit to mankind of a cleaner world. I suspect however it will take a number of disasters and millions of deaths before some realise something will need to be done.
I supported Jenrick, and have been pretty disparaging on Kemi, but yesterday she gave probably her best intervention so far, and did it in an authentically 'Kemi' way - that is to say a modern 'Ted Talk' sort of feel.
The response seems to have been very good, and it opens up a fruitful avenue of opposition as Labour begins to inflict increasing hardship to meet the Net Zero target.
The environmental and climate justification for moving to Net Zero isn’t going to go away and is likely going to get more immediate and obvious in the next decade and a half.
We can argue about how we get to Net Zero but not about whether we should and Badenoch’s response was more about pandering to the climate change deniers than dealing with the real world.
Conservatives have traditionally been pragmatic types and have adapted to a changing world when required - oddly enough I take the view Conservatives could probably get us to Net Zero quicker and easier than Labour but to pander to those unwilling or unable to accept the world is changing isn’t Conservative at all and is part of the reason why the likes of Badenoch and Jenrick are seen as irrelevant to the current debate.
Badenoch said we could still reach net zero just not by 2050
If the world hasn’t reached net zero by 2050 we’re probably all fucked anyway.
And even if we did if the US, China, Brazil and India hadn't the same would apply at least in terms of more climate change
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
Imagine if the Axis Powers had won, we'd all be driving German cars and looking and listening to Japanese consumer electronics.
Fascism has always appealed to bullies, and (more importantly), weak people who wish to share in the glory of the bully.
The curious thing is that the sort of people fascists glorify, Confederates, Nazis, Spartans, were in reality, pathetic losers. Degenerate democracies have by far, a better military record.
Fascism, including the MAGA incarnation, is all about winning over society's losers - Trump talks about this quite explicitly. Trump is a master at this - identifying points of shame, humiliation and disgust, telling a story about how malign forces - domestic and foreign - have been keeping his base down. Telling them how he will help then win - they'll get tired of winning! He will vanquish their enemies, the elites who to blame for his base's woes. It's a movement built on shame, rage and scapegoating. It's going to take us to some dark places.
Kremlin sources say the call with Trump went “very well.” Translation: They played him like a banjo.
Even somebody as delusional as Donald Trump will know he's looking weak. A reaction is inevitable. Something tough. Something strong. I think I can predict what it will be. He'll bomb some Houthis.
Trump is playing this weird line of appealing to US isolationists, whilst also appealing to the "Bomb the terrorists" people (where 'terrorist' is taken to be a rather broad grouping of anyone Trump doesn't like). The broader US public probably won't see that as much of a conflict, though.
It's about skill and competence. Some things are hard (eg ending the Ukraine war without selling out to Russia) and some things are easy (talking tough, ganging up with Israel against sundry arabs in the ME, bombing the Houthis). Trump is incapable of anything difficult, therefore he deflects to what he can manage.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
I think that is wrong. Twitter is not full of anything. Your twitter feed might be full of this, that or the other, but that is on account of your browsing habits (similar to the proverbial Thai hooker story).
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
That used to be the case, but is no longer. The algorithm pushes Muskoid facist views, and paid for blue tick trolls.
If you want to choose your own content then BlueSky is the place.
It obviously makes you feel better to think that is the case. But you are in the top 0.3% of politically engaged people so of course you'll get political views pushed to you.
No, this is objectively wrong. The algorithm has been changed both to promote far-right views, and Musk's views.
What glorious weather here. Sunny with a touch of early morning frost. Perfect for skinny dipping in my hot tub.
View of local hill not far from start of famous - or infamous (depending on your political persuasion) - river.
Gorgeous here in the Leics countryside too. When the weather's right who would be anywhere but Britain?
Beautiful here too. Cold, crisp and sunny. It's going to be like this in Scotland for the next few days, so I'm going to take Friday off and disappear into the Cairngorms with my big down sleeping bag .
The Tories dont need to replace Badenoch, just get behind Starmer.
The new Tory Tony has arrived,
Blair never hammered farmers and business owners and pensioners in the way Starmer has, immigration wise he has done nothing Rishi didn't and benefit wise he is hitting the disabled and threatening to merge JSA with EMA which would make our welfare state even less contributory than it is now
Did anyone notice that they’ve just terminated the community fund that helps local villages buy pubs to keep them open as community facilities rather than see them developed
Indeed, who on earth would bother voting for Starmer and Reeves now? If you want leftwing politics and to protect the public sector and welfare from cuts you may as well vote Green, if you want a closer relationship with the EU and more community minded politics LD, if you want Brexit as now and lower tax the Tories and if you want a harder line on immigration Reform, if you are a Muslim there are increasingly Independent MPs and candidates to support.
The only people who might vote for them with any enthusiasm are executives of big companies and developers
Well, you might vote for them to avoid a return to Conservative government, but I take your point.
The case for Labour (as opposed to against someone else) is that they are pursuing a slightly left-wing agenda with a strong dose of realism about world markets. The Greens don't engage seriously with reality, and the LibDems are unpredictable. I don't think there is a serious left-of-centre alternative.
The growing number of independent MPs concerned about Gaza and generally leftish in outlook could potentially form the core of such an alternative, but to be taken seriously it would need the involvement of serious (ex-)Labour figures, such as Corbyn and McDonnell. Neither of them seem interested in forming an actual party; they are pursuing the pressure group model. The shadow of FPTP makes an actual split relatively unlikely.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Given that we - see @DavidL's posts about the collapse of the rule of law in the US - seem to be reliving the events leading to why the Battle of Britain was necessary, it's not going to remain ancient history for long.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
And yet, my nieces know the phrase "divorced, beheaded, died" (admittedly this is because my sister's friend plays the Six album in her car...), but everyone knows about The Tudors, don't they?
Tudorism is an established cultural industry, except in Scotland, the victim of the Rough Wooing.
There are a few sites associated with Mary QoS, no?
There are sites associated with Queen Mary, but they are a bit niche except perhaps for Holyrood Palace. Lochleven Castle, Craigmillar Castle, Jedburgh, Dumbarton Castle and Carberry Hill are the ones I'm thinking of, but I have an interest in the topic.
There are probably more sites strongly associated with Mary in England. She was there for longer.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
I think that is wrong. Twitter is not full of anything. Your twitter feed might be full of this, that or the other, but that is on account of your browsing habits (similar to the proverbial Thai hooker story).
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
That used to be the case, but is no longer. The algorithm pushes Muskoid facist views, and paid for blue tick trolls.
If you want to choose your own content then BlueSky is the place.
I ad,mit I'm not a frequent user of Twitter, but I'm not noticing any significant fascist posts - my experience is like Topping's.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
I think that is wrong. Twitter is not full of anything. Your twitter feed might be full of this, that or the other, but that is on account of your browsing habits (similar to the proverbial Thai hooker story).
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
That used to be the case, but is no longer. The algorithm pushes Muskoid facist views, and paid for blue tick trolls.
If you want to choose your own content then BlueSky is the place.
It obviously makes you feel better to think that is the case. But you are in the top 0.3% of politically engaged people so of course you'll get political views pushed to you.
Can you explain why that would be a 90/10 neo-nazi/liberal proportion ?
Especially as the large majority of account I follow aren't politics accounts.
The I think latest More or Less (dates on the page are a bit missing), which looks at:
More working age people are claiming disability benefits. What's driving the trend?
Is it true that the UK imprisons more people for their social media posts than Russia does? (MAGA Mushroom type former Trump Ambassador to Denmark with fake UK vs Russia free speech statistics, thoroughly debagged).
Unreliability of the Labour Force Survey, which is where that zombie stat about Ashfield yesterday came from (more later from me on that). Specific comment on unreliability of the Economic Inactivity statistics.
Age of UK Housing stock vs Europe. (TLDR: Yes we do, as any moderately attentive Pobble knows).
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
And yet, my nieces know the phrase "divorced, beheaded, died" (admittedly this is because my sister's friend plays the Six album in her car...), but everyone knows about The Tudors, don't they?
Tudorism is an established cultural industry, except in Scotland, the victim of the Rough Wooing.
There are a few sites associated with Mary QoS, no?
There are sites associated with Queen Mary, but they are a bit niche except perhaps for Holyrood Palace. Lochleven Castle, Craigmillar Castle, Jedburgh, Dumbarton Castle and Carberry Hill are the ones I'm thinking of, but I have an interest in the topic.
There are probably more sites strongly associated with Mary in England. She was there for longer.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
Imagine if the Axis Powers had won, we'd all be driving German cars and looking and listening to Japanese consumer electronics.
Fascism has always appealed to bullies, and (more importantly), weak people who wish to share in the glory of the bully.
The curious thing is that the sort of people fascists glorify, Confederates, Nazis, Spartans, were in reality, pathetic losers. Degenerate democracies have by far, a better military record.
Fascism, including the MAGA incarnation, is all about winning over society's losers - Trump talks about this quite explicitly. Trump is a master at this - identifying points of shame, humiliation and disgust, telling a story about how malign forces - domestic and foreign - have been keeping his base down. Telling them how he will help then win - they'll get tired of winning! He will vanquish their enemies, the elites who to blame for his base's woes. It's a movement built on shame, rage and scapegoating. It's going to take us to some dark places.
That's a very illuminating insight. It shows how, at the end of the day, right-wing populism is completely incompatible with conservatism.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
I think that is wrong. Twitter is not full of anything. Your twitter feed might be full of this, that or the other, but that is on account of your browsing habits (similar to the proverbial Thai hooker story).
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
That used to be the case, but is no longer. The algorithm pushes Muskoid facist views, and paid for blue tick trolls.
If you want to choose your own content then BlueSky is the place.
It obviously makes you feel better to think that is the case. But you are in the top 0.3% of politically engaged people so of course you'll get political views pushed to you.
No, this is objectively wrong. The algorithm has been changed both to promote far-right views, and Musk's views.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
And yet, my nieces know the phrase "divorced, beheaded, died" (admittedly this is because my sister's friend plays the Six album in her car...), but everyone knows about The Tudors, don't they?
Is there a more useless mnemonic than divorced, beheaded, died etc? What happened to Anne Boleyn? Ah, so now we need another mnemonic naming the queens in order to get anything useful from the first mnemonic.
Able Bodied Seamen Catch Hairy Pirates
I just typed out one of the older mnemonics for the 12 cranial nerves, then thought better. It's rather rude. Looking online it appears to have been bowdlerised in recent years, substituting in the words "velvet" and "heaven" instead.
Sparta was sunk by its culture, not military as such. The military strength declined naturally because of the exclusive nature at the top of Spartan society and segregating married couples during their earliest years of wedlock, leading to fewer kids.
The number of soldiers they fielded as the years went by continually declined.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
I think that is wrong. Twitter is not full of anything. Your twitter feed might be full of this, that or the other, but that is on account of your browsing habits (similar to the proverbial Thai hooker story).
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
That used to be the case, but is no longer. The algorithm pushes Muskoid facist views, and paid for blue tick trolls.
If you want to choose your own content then BlueSky is the place.
If you want real people, Bluesky is the place to be. If you want bots then go to Twitter.
Santander shutting 95 branches, around a quarter of its U.K. network.
When they have closed all their branches - why would anyone still use them? They offer less than online challenger banks, are usually less secure, and if you can't physically use a branch there's very little point in having an account with them.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Tsk. 1995 was The Battle of Britpop, Oasis v Blur. Far more important than the Battle of Britain.
The Battle of Britain, along with the creation of the NHS, is an essential part of modern Britain's foundation mythology - by which I don't mean it's a myth. It's fundamental to our way of seeing ourselves - an ideal too.
Losing that sense of it, amid a welter of social media, reality tv, Faragism, etc., would be sad indeed.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
Imagine if the Axis Powers had won, we'd all be driving German cars and looking and listening to Japanese consumer electronics.
Fascism has always appealed to bullies, and (more importantly), weak people who wish to share in the glory of the bully.
The curious thing is that the sort of people fascists glorify, Confederates, Nazis, Spartans, were in reality, pathetic losers. Degenerate democracies have by far, a better military record.
Fascism, including the MAGA incarnation, is all about winning over society's losers - Trump talks about this quite explicitly. Trump is a master at this - identifying points of shame, humiliation and disgust, telling a story about how malign forces - domestic and foreign - have been keeping his base down. Telling them how he will help then win - they'll get tired of winning! He will vanquish their enemies, the elites who to blame for his base's woes. It's a movement built on shame, rage and scapegoating. It's going to take us to some dark places.
That perfect mix of triumphalism, self-pity, and resentment.
Anger on the part of people who think they’re getting their arses kicked, when they are the ones who deserve to be kicking arses.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
I think that is wrong. Twitter is not full of anything. Your twitter feed might be full of this, that or the other, but that is on account of your browsing habits (similar to the proverbial Thai hooker story).
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
That used to be the case, but is no longer. The algorithm pushes Muskoid facist views, and paid for blue tick trolls.
If you want to choose your own content then BlueSky is the place.
It obviously makes you feel better to think that is the case. But you are in the top 0.3% of politically engaged people so of course you'll get political views pushed to you.
No, this is objectively wrong. The algorithm has been changed both to promote far-right views, and Musk's views.
The and seems superfluous.
Interesting that they can change algorithms to promote far right views but not to stop promoting suicide to teenagers or other harmful content. Nick Clegg please explain.... bit late now he's left his job obfuscating that issue.
I admit to a certain excitement at JFK files being released. The discrepancy between the trauma doctors and the official autopsy has always intrigued me.
Kremlin sources say the call with Trump went “very well.” Translation: They played him like a banjo.
Even somebody as delusional as Donald Trump will know he's looking weak. A reaction is inevitable. Something tough. Something strong. I think I can predict what it will be. He'll bomb some Houthis.
For a genius peacemaker, he’s looking a bit warfighty.
So long as it's the small boy with glasses he's facing. And preferably Muslim.
This is an interesting comment and explains the "Queers for Palestine" phenomenon.
I'm the mind of mainly leftists the world consists of binary choices and dynamics. If you are perceived to be "weak" or oppressed then you have common cause with every other group that is perceived similarly. No matter the "truth" of the situation or context. Or indeed the nature of the group you have deemed worthy of your support. You have to take a side.
Is that right? Gosh, what a thing.
So perhaps we can hear your theory (as a fan of his) as to why Donald Trump is 'peace peace peace' with Russia/Ukraine but the opposite with Israel/ME.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
I think that is wrong. Twitter is not full of anything. Your twitter feed might be full of this, that or the other, but that is on account of your browsing habits (similar to the proverbial Thai hooker story).
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
That used to be the case, but is no longer. The algorithm pushes Muskoid facist views, and paid for blue tick trolls.
If you want to choose your own content then BlueSky is the place.
I ad,mit I'm not a frequent user of Twitter, but I'm not noticing any significant fascist posts - my experience is like Topping's.
I seem to get a lady with tattoos in leather trying to entice me to a dating/chat site a lot. Not sure the wife would be too keen...
I supported Jenrick, and have been pretty disparaging on Kemi, but yesterday she gave probably her best intervention so far, and did it in an authentically 'Kemi' way - that is to say a modern 'Ted Talk' sort of feel.
The response seems to have been very good, and it opens up a fruitful avenue of opposition as Labour begins to inflict increasing hardship to meet the Net Zero target.
The environmental and climate justification for moving to Net Zero isn’t going to go away and is likely going to get more immediate and obvious in the next decade and a half.
We can argue about how we get to Net Zero but not about whether we should and Badenoch’s response was more about pandering to the climate change deniers than dealing with the real world.
Conservatives have traditionally been pragmatic types and have adapted to a changing world when required - oddly enough I take the view Conservatives could probably get us to Net Zero quicker and easier than Labour but to pander to those unwilling or unable to accept the world is changing isn’t Conservative at all and is part of the reason why the likes of Badenoch and Jenrick are seen as irrelevant to the current debate.
There are genuine concerns about the journey to Net Zero/renewables. What Badenoch misses is that most people still want it to happen.
I think the smart thing to do for the Conservatives is to suggest Labour are failing on Net Zero (particularly around EVs) and moan that they aren't making it easy for responsible citizens to make the transition. I would also try to own the non-environmental benefits, like increased energy security, levelling up, cheaper energy etc etc, while leaving the eco-flummery to Labour. A really easy way to do this would be to focus on our electricity imports from France. Let's wean ourselves off European energy.
At the moment, her strategy makes sense if you get all your information from facebook/twitter, which is dominated by Reform types who hyperventilate negativity about everything.
"We import £250GWh* of electricity from France every week. Lets sell them ours instead."?
Stick that on the side of a bus
*pleasingly roughly right - Google says 12.7TWh per year which is 244GWh/week
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
I think that is wrong. Twitter is not full of anything. Your twitter feed might be full of this, that or the other, but that is on account of your browsing habits (similar to the proverbial Thai hooker story).
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
That used to be the case, but is no longer. The algorithm pushes Muskoid facist views, and paid for blue tick trolls.
If you want to choose your own content then BlueSky is the place.
I ad,mit I'm not a frequent user of Twitter, but I'm not noticing any significant fascist posts - my experience is like Topping's.
I seem to get a lady with tattoos in leather trying to entice me to a dating/chat site a lot. Not sure the wife would be too keen...
Yeah, there's those posts, but I do get quite a lot of culture war stuff thrown at me. There's a Netflix series called Adolescence which seems to have provoked a lot of debate.
Santander shutting 95 branches, around a quarter of its U.K. network.
When they have closed all their branches - why would anyone still use them? They offer less than online challenger banks, are usually less secure, and if you can't physically use a branch there's very little point in having an account with them.
Probably on the grounds they are the second biggest retail bank based in the UK globally after HSBC so relatively secure even though the bank branches closures are another blow to the high street
Is it fair to say that the big tech companies have an interest in making sure that a ban on smartphones for children is blamed on Andrew Tate rather than themselves?
I admit to a certain excitement at JFK files being released. The discrepancy between the trauma doctors and the official autopsy has always intrigued me.
Personally, I think most of the conspiracy theories are bollocks and a lot is just down to the chaos of the event and/or incompetence.
I think the question is, why did LHO kill Kennedy. I think there are three main options
* Self-radicalised lone gunman * The Soviets * Criminal associates of LBJ (ie the Mob)
I used to think the third was the likeliest, but of course we are now much more acquainted with the first
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
Imagine if the Axis Powers had won, we'd all be driving German cars and looking and listening to Japanese consumer electronics.
More in Common have Lab 25%, Ref 25%, Con 24%, Lib Dem 12%, Green 7%.
EC translate that into 182 seats, 168, 186, 57.
So Kemi PM with Reform confidence and supply, ironically despite the thread header
Are you sure about that? There are a handful of lifelong Labour haters on here who have indicated they would rather vote Labour than furnish Farage with the keys to any address in Downing Street. Would Nigey even accept the silver medal when he is ahead in the popular vote?
More in Common have Lab 25%, Ref 25%, Con 24%, Lib Dem 12%, Green 7%.
EC translate that into 182 seats, 168, 186, 57.
So Kemi PM with Reform confidence and supply, ironically despite the thread header
Confidence and supply wouldn't work (except for confidence and supply). 186 is too small to get anything thru the house, even if it's the Cake Is Lovely Bill (2029)
I was only really aware of Torsten Bell as a name at the end of various worthy think tank pieces, first time I’ve seen him in action since he went party political. Do Labour grow these angry yet bland people in test tubes? Makes Wes look almost non replicant.
Longitudinal Associations Between Adolescents’ mHealth App Use, Body Dissatisfaction, and Physical Self-Worth: Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Study, https://mental.jmir.org/2025/1/e60844
This study highlighted that within-person changes in using mHealth apps were differentially associated with adolescents’ body-related attitudes. While increased use of mHealth apps did not influence body dissatisfaction across genders, it significantly predicted higher physical self-worth in adolescent girls 6 months later. A similar association was not observed among boys after 6 months. These findings indicate that using mHealth apps is unlikely to have a detrimental impact on adolescents’ body dissatisfaction and physical self-worth; instead, they may have a positive influence, particularly in boosting the physical self-worth of adolescent girls.
A surprising result for those worried about social media.
The very most damaging measure, invisible to most if not all PB types ofc, is the change to NI next month. This will drive people out of business and predominantly affect those at the lower end of the salary scale. It can't be overstated how damaging this will be.
Agree it will damage companies, people will lose jobs, companies will close, houses will be reposed and some will have debts they will never pay off. This is the individual level. But if you are a capitalist, this is the creative destruction that leads to new companies where the capital tied up in zombie companies e.g Thames Water gets redistributed to more valued activities.
You can't proclaim to be a capitalist and a conservative if all you want is a taxpayer subsidy (companies offering zero hours contracts) or special treatment (farmers say hello). Like taxing people, it's always the wrong sort of change for those that benefit from a historical bung based on pork barrel politics (Rishi was the worst and cynical with it)
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
I think that is wrong. Twitter is not full of anything. Your twitter feed might be full of this, that or the other, but that is on account of your browsing habits (similar to the proverbial Thai hooker story).
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
That used to be the case, but is no longer. The algorithm pushes Muskoid facist views, and paid for blue tick trolls.
If you want to choose your own content then BlueSky is the place.
IIUC Bluesky is subscription driven: you subscribe to people and then get fed people who subscribed to those, and so on. Various block lists are available and can be shared. This leads to the "walled gardens" that Twitter folx criticise but is more pleasant and less insane.
Twitter is algorithm driven: you spend time looking at subject X and then get fed more about subject X and associated subjects. Blocking is more difficult. This leads to the "down the rabbit hole" that affects so many people. The effect is exacerbated by i) Elon being in charge of the algorithm and able to drive whatever nonsense pricks his fancy to millions of people in minutes, and ii) bots driving the algorithm further and faster and nastier/pornier.
It's obvious at this point that algorithm-driven social media is driving us collectively nuts, but nobody is doing anything about it, aaaargh.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
Imagine if the Axis Powers had won, we'd all be driving German cars and looking and listening to Japanese consumer electronics.
Fascism has always appealed to bullies, and (more importantly), weak people who wish to share in the glory of the bully.
The curious thing is that the sort of people fascists glorify, Confederates, Nazis, Spartans, were in reality, pathetic losers. Degenerate democracies have by far, a better military record.
Fascism, including the MAGA incarnation, is all about winning over society's losers - Trump talks about this quite explicitly. Trump is a master at this - identifying points of shame, humiliation and disgust, telling a story about how malign forces - domestic and foreign - have been keeping his base down. Telling them how he will help then win - they'll get tired of winning! He will vanquish their enemies, the elites who to blame for his base's woes. It's a movement built on shame, rage and scapegoating. It's going to take us to some dark places.
That's a very illuminating insight. It shows how, at the end of the day, right-wing populism is completely incompatible with conservatism.
I think that's right - conservatives who get this, like Bill Kristol or Dick Cheney, have been at the forefront of opposition to MAGA. Unfortunately, there are others who see Trumpism as less of a threat to capital than a putative left wing version, as there were German capitalists and conservatives who thought the Nazis would be a bulwark against Bolschevism. Ultimately MAGA is a threat to conservative interests because it is all about dismantling things - the rule of law, global alliances - that capital needs to thrive.
I admit to a certain excitement at JFK files being released. The discrepancy between the trauma doctors and the official autopsy has always intrigued me.
Personally, I think most of the conspiracy theories are bollocks and a lot is just down to the chaos of the event and/or incompetence.
I think the question is, why did LHO kill Kennedy. I think there are three main options
* Self-radicalised lone gunman * The Soviets * Criminal associates of LBJ (ie the Mob)
I used to think the third was the likeliest, but of course we are now much more acquainted with the first
Half the files seem to be a re-release of the ones Biden released, and the most of the rest utterly tedious. But there is this bombshell doing the rounds.
Longitudinal Associations Between Adolescents’ mHealth App Use, Body Dissatisfaction, and Physical Self-Worth: Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Study, https://mental.jmir.org/2025/1/e60844
This study highlighted that within-person changes in using mHealth apps were differentially associated with adolescents’ body-related attitudes. While increased use of mHealth apps did not influence body dissatisfaction across genders, it significantly predicted higher physical self-worth in adolescent girls 6 months later. A similar association was not observed among boys after 6 months. These findings indicate that using mHealth apps is unlikely to have a detrimental impact on adolescents’ body dissatisfaction and physical self-worth; instead, they may have a positive influence, particularly in boosting the physical self-worth of adolescent girls.
A surprising result for those worried about social media.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
Imagine if the Axis Powers had won, we'd all be driving German cars and looking and listening to Japanese consumer electronics.
It’s a brilliant series of posts deconstructing the Spartan myths
Sparta is essentially, the stupid version of Rome..
The latter were just as cruel and ruthless, but far more intelligently so. They were an insignificant city State, who created an empire that still has a huge imprint on the world. Sparta was a big city state that eventually became an insignificant one.
Rome's elite was usually very generous with grants of citizenship (save for the period around the time of the Social War), not out of the kindness of their hearts, but because more citizens meant more soldiers. Sparta's elite went out of the way to ensure that its citizens were an exclusive, and dwindling minority. Defeat on the battlefield was preferable to enfranchising the underclasses.
Rome's slaves were mostly badly-treated, but for a not insignificant minority, there was a pathway to citizen status. That was an incentive to remain loyal. For Sparta's slaves, the best they could hope for was a very limited freedom, in return for fighting well. Alternatively, those that fought well, might be seen as a threat and quietly murdered. Nor were the Romans every stupid enough to keep 70% of the population as slaves. Sparta's slaves defected to Sparta's enemies.
Rome took very seriously, the interests of its subject allies. They had to give up their foreign policy to Rome, but paid Rome no tribute, and Rome treated an attack upon them, as an attack upon Rome. Roman soldiers died in their thousands, defending allies, because they saw their credibility as being on the line. Sparta extorted everything it could out of its subject allies.
Since we are having an eclectic morning conversation, here's an article about Trumpvangelical (my word - actually driven by people of the same ilk as Trump's spiritual adviser) prayer gatherings held in support of Trump's attempts to steal the 2020 election:
Radical beliefs in 'spiritual warfare' played a major role in Jan. 6, an expert argues Religious scholar Matthew D. Taylor says the rhetoric of Christian nationalist pastors can tip over into actual violence.
Slightly lengthy quote:
On Dec. 1, in Pittsburgh, an Atlanta-based “apostolic leader” named Jacquie Tyre kept her voice at a steady, constant yell around the halfway point of a nearly three-hour political rally and religious service.
“There is rising up a militia, that is connecting to the battlefield states, that will uncover, even beginning this night, the fraud, the corruption, the infiltration of evil from Pennsylvania to Georgia, from Georgia to Nevada, from Nevada to Arizona, from Arizona to New Mexico, from New Mexico to Wisconsin, to Michigan,” Tyre roared.
“God, we declare, that the militia men, the minutemen of the kingdom of God, are rising up in this hour,” she howled. “And, Father, we declare and decree in this place that there is no demon in hell and there is no voice out of government that can topple the kingdom of our God.”
And it was all at the behest of Republican political officials in Washington, D.C, according to the leader of this effort, a pastor from South Carolina named Dutch Sheets. Little known outside his movement, Sheets would later meet with Trump administration officials at the White House on Dec. 29, 2020, a week before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters.
These meetings — and the religious philosophy that animated them — were a much bigger part of Jan. 6 than has previously been realized, argues Matthew D. Taylor, a scholar of Protestantism at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore.
It's linked to a movement called the "New Apostolic Reformation", which does 'strategic spiritual warfare', and linked to the Christian Dominionism movement I have mentioned before.
To put it mildly, this is what happens when one track minds get their categories confused and follow the rabbit hole.
Longitudinal Associations Between Adolescents’ mHealth App Use, Body Dissatisfaction, and Physical Self-Worth: Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Study, https://mental.jmir.org/2025/1/e60844
This study highlighted that within-person changes in using mHealth apps were differentially associated with adolescents’ body-related attitudes. While increased use of mHealth apps did not influence body dissatisfaction across genders, it significantly predicted higher physical self-worth in adolescent girls 6 months later. A similar association was not observed among boys after 6 months. These findings indicate that using mHealth apps is unlikely to have a detrimental impact on adolescents’ body dissatisfaction and physical self-worth; instead, they may have a positive influence, particularly in boosting the physical self-worth of adolescent girls.
A surprising result for those worried about social media.
What is a "mHealth app"? Is it "social media"?
I just asked CoPilot "what is a "mHealth app", how many exist, and can you give me a list of the top 20?". PB people don't like it when you cut-and-paste CoPilot output but the answer is along the lines of apps on your phones for mental health and there are hundreds of thousands of them. I'd need to know what mHealth apps they used in the paper.
Plus, to belabour the obvious, they aren't "social media" as I understand it.
I admit to a certain excitement at JFK files being released. The discrepancy between the trauma doctors and the official autopsy has always intrigued me.
Personally, I think most of the conspiracy theories are bollocks and a lot is just down to the chaos of the event and/or incompetence.
I think the question is, why did LHO kill Kennedy. I think there are three main options
* Self-radicalised lone gunman * The Soviets * Criminal associates of LBJ (ie the Mob)
I used to think the third was the likeliest, but of course we are now much more acquainted with the first
Half the files seem to be a re-release of the ones Biden released, and the most of the rest utterly tedious. But there is this bombshell doing the rounds.
What age would Hillary be in 1963 if she was born in 1947. My arithmetic is a bit out.
My daughter does this too. I think it's just easier than saying "she", or they just don't make sex distinctions in general at that age. One of the two.
To those saying “the Tories should be doing better, the government is very unpopular.”
Well, yes, the government is unpopular but what that fails to understand is that the Tories had a catastrophic fall from grace which has left them probably even less trusted than Labour. When you look at things through the prism that this is a party who could only return 120-odd MPs (a historically disastrous result for either of the main two parties) and who are pretty much accepted by all and sundry for breaking more or less everything (or at least whistling and looking in the other direction while it broke itself), you start to see their polling in context.
Kemi is looking like a relatively poor choice out of a poor field of candidates. Jenrick would probably have landed more hits and Cleverly might have been more grown up, and those approaches might have had their relative advantages, but it’s hard to see the party doing massively better at this point.
Longitudinal Associations Between Adolescents’ mHealth App Use, Body Dissatisfaction, and Physical Self-Worth: Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Study, https://mental.jmir.org/2025/1/e60844
This study highlighted that within-person changes in using mHealth apps were differentially associated with adolescents’ body-related attitudes. While increased use of mHealth apps did not influence body dissatisfaction across genders, it significantly predicted higher physical self-worth in adolescent girls 6 months later. A similar association was not observed among boys after 6 months. These findings indicate that using mHealth apps is unlikely to have a detrimental impact on adolescents’ body dissatisfaction and physical self-worth; instead, they may have a positive influence, particularly in boosting the physical self-worth of adolescent girls.
A surprising result for those worried about social media.
Since we are having an eclectic morning conversation, here's an article about Trumpvangelical (my word - actually driven by people of the same ilk as Trump's spiritual adviser) prayer gatherings held in support of Trump's attempts to steal the 2020 election:
Radical beliefs in 'spiritual warfare' played a major role in Jan. 6, an expert argues Religious scholar Matthew D. Taylor says the rhetoric of Christian nationalist pastors can tip over into actual violence.
Slightly lengthy quote:
On Dec. 1, in Pittsburgh, an Atlanta-based “apostolic leader” named Jacquie Tyre kept her voice at a steady, constant yell around the halfway point of a nearly three-hour political rally and religious service.
“There is rising up a militia, that is connecting to the battlefield states, that will uncover, even beginning this night, the fraud, the corruption, the infiltration of evil from Pennsylvania to Georgia, from Georgia to Nevada, from Nevada to Arizona, from Arizona to New Mexico, from New Mexico to Wisconsin, to Michigan,” Tyre roared.
“God, we declare, that the militia men, the minutemen of the kingdom of God, are rising up in this hour,” she howled. “And, Father, we declare and decree in this place that there is no demon in hell and there is no voice out of government that can topple the kingdom of our God.”
And it was all at the behest of Republican political officials in Washington, D.C, according to the leader of this effort, a pastor from South Carolina named Dutch Sheets. Little known outside his movement, Sheets would later meet with Trump administration officials at the White House on Dec. 29, 2020, a week before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters.
These meetings — and the religious philosophy that animated them — were a much bigger part of Jan. 6 than has previously been realized, argues Matthew D. Taylor, a scholar of Protestantism at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore.
It's linked to a movement called the "New Apostolic Reformation", which does 'strategic spiritual warfare', and linked to the Christian Dominionism movement I have mentioned before.
To put it mildly, this is what happens when one track minds get their categories confused and follow the rabbit hole.
Like the belief that fighting to maintain and expand slavery was the will of God.
The sad thing is that in the news report about him on the Today programme yesterday they felt the need to explain what the Battle of Britain was.
It felt somewhat strange that the reporters/editors of Today think that people who listen to their programme need to have the BoB explained to them.
I noted that, too. The sad thing is that we're getting old. Battle of Britain is no longer the piece of universal popular culture that it was a generation back.
The Battle of Britain was 85 years ago.
That's like me learning about the Boer Wars when I was 10. OK, the BoB is much more important an event than that, but some of my contemporaries' fathers had fought in WW2 and it had finished only 30 years previously, which is like, er, 1995 is now (can't think of anything that happened then)
So while WW2 was an epoch-making event and the ever-present background to the world many of us grew up in, it is now fairly ancient history
Morning, PB.
And the real worry is that the new right are now beginning to normalise Nazism. Twitter is increasingly full of very large amounts of normalised, extreme antisemitism, and earlier this week the central Maga figure Tucker Carlson implied it might have been better if Hitler had occupied Europe.
I think that is wrong. Twitter is not full of anything. Your twitter feed might be full of this, that or the other, but that is on account of your browsing habits (similar to the proverbial Thai hooker story).
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
That used to be the case, but is no longer. The algorithm pushes Muskoid facist views, and paid for blue tick trolls.
If you want to choose your own content then BlueSky is the place.
IIUC Bluesky is subscription driven: you subscribe to people and then get fed people who subscribed to those, and so on. Various block lists are available and can be shared. This leads to the "walled gardens" that Twitter folx criticise but is more pleasant and less insane.
Twitter is algorithm driven: you spend time looking at subject X and then get fed more about subject X and associated subjects. Blocking is more difficult. This leads to the "down the rabbit hole" that affects so many people. The effect is exacerbated by i) Elon being in charge of the algorithm and able to drive whatever nonsense pricks his fancy to millions of people in minutes, and ii) bots driving the algorithm further and faster and nastier/pornier.
It's obvious at this point that algorithm-driven social media is driving us collectively nuts, but nobody is doing anything about it, aaaargh.
"...But here’s what I think might be new, or at least under-discussed: I am seeing mounting evidence that an increasing number of people are so used to algorithmically-generated feeds that they no longer care to have a self-directed experience that they are in control of. The more time I spend interacting with folks online, the more it feels like large swaths of people have forgotten to exercise their own agency. That is what I mean by algorithmic complacency. More and more people don’t seem to know or care how to view the world without a computer algorithm guiding what they see..."
I admit to a certain excitement at JFK files being released. The discrepancy between the trauma doctors and the official autopsy has always intrigued me.
Personally, I think most of the conspiracy theories are bollocks and a lot is just down to the chaos of the event and/or incompetence.
I think the question is, why did LHO kill Kennedy. I think there are three main options
* Self-radicalised lone gunman * The Soviets * Criminal associates of LBJ (ie the Mob)
I used to think the third was the likeliest, but of course we are now much more acquainted with the first
Half the files seem to be a re-release of the ones Biden released, and the most of the rest utterly tedious. But there is this bombshell doing the rounds.
What age would Hillary be in 1963 if she was born in 1947. My arithmetic is a bit out.
Comments
Did I ever tell you Rachel Reeves is totally shit ?
Fascism has always appealed to bullies, and (more importantly), weak people who wish to share in the glory of the bully.
The curious thing is that the sort of people fascists glorify, Confederates, Nazis, Spartans, were in reality, pathetic losers. Degenerate democracies have by far, a better military record.
Each person creates their own twitter universe. Not many stories pop up on your feed, I imagine, about miniature railways. Would not be the case if you were a miniature railways fan.
Not that there aren't examples of it working (and almost always with pubs) but it is a big ask.
Bodied
Seamen
Catch
Hairy
Pirates
If you want to choose your own content then BlueSky is the place.
Every couple of weeks, along with the usual stuff you're interested in, there's a rash of some particular set of posts, and one of the current flavours is neo-nazi. My only interaction with them is to block them, and still they pop up. I'm fully aware that if you reply, or quote such posts, then it disposes the algo to feed you more of them; that is not what is happening.
I'm the mind of mainly leftists the world consists of binary choices and dynamics. If you are perceived to be "weak" or oppressed then you have common cause with every other group that is perceived similarly. No matter the "truth" of the situation or context. Or indeed the nature of the group you have deemed worthy of your support. You have to take a side.
The only people who might vote for them with any enthusiasm are executives of big companies and developers
The Trump experiment could go on for decades before it finally crumbles. Look at Pinochet's Chile as your model. Plenty of opportunities to fill stadia to the brim with Socialists (Democrats?) before we see the day mind.
...
...following a small but significant law change in 2014, if a victim of a miscarriage of justice in England and Wales wants to receive compensation, they must not only be cleared, but also demonstrate they are innocent - in effect "reversing the burden of proof"...
About 93% of applications for compensation have been rejected by the Ministry of Justice since 2016, government figures show.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8rkvxlkpx2o
It’s called leading by example. A lot of other countries will try to reach Net Zero, probably quicker than us but we are one of the world’s leading economies and we can and should be in the vanguard.
Climate change and other environmental impacts will be felt everywhere even in those countries which prioritise selfish economic growth over the wider benefit to mankind of a cleaner world. I suspect however it will take a number of disasters and millions of deaths before some realise something will need to be done.
EC translate that into 182 seats, 168, 186, 57.
https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1902074303446970857
https://x.com/tim_walz/status/1902197581586833643
The growing number of independent MPs concerned about Gaza and generally leftish in outlook could potentially form the core of such an alternative, but to be taken seriously it would need the involvement of serious (ex-)Labour figures, such as Corbyn and McDonnell. Neither of them seem interested in forming an actual party; they are pursuing the pressure group model. The shadow of FPTP makes an actual split relatively unlikely.
There are probably more sites strongly associated with Mary in England. She was there for longer.
Especially as the large majority of account I follow aren't politics accounts.
The I think latest More or Less (dates on the page are a bit missing), which looks at:
More working age people are claiming disability benefits. What's driving the trend?
Is it true that the UK imprisons more people for their social media posts than Russia does? (MAGA Mushroom type former Trump Ambassador to Denmark with fake UK vs Russia free speech statistics, thoroughly debagged).
Unreliability of the Labour Force Survey, which is where that zombie stat about Ashfield yesterday came from (more later from me on that). Specific comment on unreliability of the Economic Inactivity statistics.
Age of UK Housing stock vs Europe. (TLDR: Yes we do, as any moderately attentive Pobble knows).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0028zxj
Although yes, I agree, Tutbury or Sheffield Manor Lodge (or even Hardwick) are more heavily marketed on the subject.
Oddly, not Fotheringhay, although that's hardly much of a tourist attraction.
Nissans are fast, BMWs are faster, but Teslas are definitely the fascist
The number of soldiers they fielded as the years went by continually declined.
When they have closed all their branches - why would anyone still use them? They offer less than online challenger banks, are usually less secure, and if you can't physically use a branch there's very little point in having an account with them.
Losing that sense of it, amid a welter of social media, reality tv, Faragism, etc., would be sad indeed.
If in a Tesla, maybe even far right.
Anger on the part of people who think they’re getting their arses kicked, when they are the ones who deserve to be kicking arses.
He doesn't realise those are just Roman driving tests...
Nick Clegg please explain.... bit late now he's left his job obfuscating that issue.
So perhaps we can hear your theory (as a fan of his) as to why Donald Trump is 'peace peace peace' with Russia/Ukraine but the opposite with Israel/ME.
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8s
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that 'Russians aren't ready to finish the war'.
He is speaking in Helsinki at a news conference with Alexander Stubband.
https://x.com/SkyNews/status/1902303118613696615
Of course, constituencies are what matter in our system of parliament, so they are still sobering findings.
Stick that on the side of a bus
*pleasingly roughly right - Google says 12.7TWh per year which is 244GWh/week
ETA: Figure net, apparently, from 2023
Of course you have been known to change your mind.
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/barack-obama-is-queer-married-to-a-man-michelle-obama-elon-musks-father-errol-musks-bizarre-claim-7716293
I think the question is, why did LHO kill Kennedy. I think there are three main options
* Self-radicalised lone gunman
* The Soviets
* Criminal associates of LBJ (ie the Mob)
I used to think the third was the likeliest, but of course we are now much more acquainted with the first
https://acoup.blog/2019/09/20/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-vi-spartan-battle/
It’s a brilliant series of posts deconstructing the Spartan myths
https://x.com/bbcnewsnight/status/1902123094300357072?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
This study highlighted that within-person changes in using mHealth apps were differentially associated with adolescents’ body-related attitudes. While increased use of mHealth apps did not influence body dissatisfaction across genders, it significantly predicted higher physical self-worth in adolescent girls 6 months later. A similar association was not observed among boys after 6 months. These findings indicate that using mHealth apps is unlikely to have a detrimental impact on adolescents’ body dissatisfaction and physical self-worth; instead, they may have a positive influence, particularly in boosting the physical self-worth of adolescent girls.
A surprising result for those worried about social media.
You can't proclaim to be a capitalist and a conservative if all you want is a taxpayer subsidy (companies offering zero hours contracts) or special treatment (farmers say hello). Like taxing people, it's always the wrong sort of change for those that benefit from a historical bung based on pork barrel politics (Rishi was the worst and cynical with it)
Twitter is algorithm driven: you spend time looking at subject X and then get fed more about subject X and associated subjects. Blocking is more difficult. This leads to the "down the rabbit hole" that affects so many people. The effect is exacerbated by i) Elon being in charge of the algorithm and able to drive whatever nonsense pricks his fancy to millions of people in minutes, and ii) bots driving the algorithm further and faster and nastier/pornier.
It's obvious at this point that algorithm-driven social media is driving us collectively nuts, but nobody is doing anything about it, aaaargh.
This guy explains the situation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJpZjg8GuA (38 mins)
But there is this bombshell doing the rounds.
The latter were just as cruel and ruthless, but far more intelligently so. They were an insignificant city State, who created an empire that still has a huge imprint on the world. Sparta was a big city state that eventually became an insignificant one.
Rome's elite was usually very generous with grants of citizenship (save for the period around the time of the Social War), not out of the kindness of their hearts, but because more citizens meant more soldiers. Sparta's elite went out of the way to ensure that its citizens were an exclusive, and dwindling minority. Defeat on the battlefield was preferable to enfranchising the underclasses.
Rome's slaves were mostly badly-treated, but for a not insignificant minority, there was a pathway to citizen status. That was an incentive to remain loyal. For Sparta's slaves, the best they could hope for was a very limited freedom, in return for fighting well. Alternatively, those that fought well, might be seen as a threat and quietly murdered. Nor were the Romans every stupid enough to keep 70% of the population as slaves. Sparta's slaves defected to Sparta's enemies.
Rome took very seriously, the interests of its subject allies. They had to give up their foreign policy to Rome, but paid Rome no tribute, and Rome treated an attack upon them, as an attack upon Rome. Roman soldiers died in their thousands, defending allies, because they saw their credibility as being on the line. Sparta extorted everything it could out of its subject allies.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/radical-beliefs-in-spiritual-warfare-played-a-major-role-in-jan-6-an-expert-argues-100039606.html
Radical beliefs in 'spiritual warfare' played a major role in Jan. 6, an expert argues
Religious scholar Matthew D. Taylor says the rhetoric of Christian nationalist pastors can tip over into actual violence.
Slightly lengthy quote:
On Dec. 1, in Pittsburgh, an Atlanta-based “apostolic leader” named Jacquie Tyre kept her voice at a steady, constant yell around the halfway point of a nearly three-hour political rally and religious service.
“There is rising up a militia, that is connecting to the battlefield states, that will uncover, even beginning this night, the fraud, the corruption, the infiltration of evil from Pennsylvania to Georgia, from Georgia to Nevada, from Nevada to Arizona, from Arizona to New Mexico, from New Mexico to Wisconsin, to Michigan,” Tyre roared.
“God, we declare, that the militia men, the minutemen of the kingdom of God, are rising up in this hour,” she howled. “And, Father, we declare and decree in this place that there is no demon in hell and there is no voice out of government that can topple the kingdom of our God.”
And it was all at the behest of Republican political officials in Washington, D.C, according to the leader of this effort, a pastor from South Carolina named Dutch Sheets. Little known outside his movement, Sheets would later meet with Trump administration officials at the White House on Dec. 29, 2020, a week before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters.
These meetings — and the religious philosophy that animated them — were a much bigger part of Jan. 6 than has previously been realized, argues Matthew D. Taylor, a scholar of Protestantism at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore.
It's linked to a movement called the "New Apostolic Reformation", which does 'strategic spiritual warfare', and linked to the Christian Dominionism movement I have mentioned before.
To put it mildly, this is what happens when one track minds get their categories confused and follow the rabbit hole.
Plus, to belabour the obvious, they aren't "social media" as I understand it.
Well, yes, the government is unpopular but what that fails to understand is that the Tories had a catastrophic fall from grace which has left them probably even less trusted than Labour. When you look at things through the prism that this is a party who could only return 120-odd MPs (a historically disastrous result for either of the main two parties) and who are pretty much accepted by all and sundry for breaking more or less everything (or at least whistling and looking in the other direction while it broke itself), you start to see their polling in context.
Kemi is looking like a relatively poor choice out of a poor field of candidates. Jenrick would probably have landed more hits and Cleverly might have been more grown up, and those approaches might have had their relative advantages, but it’s hard to see the party doing massively better at this point.
(or mobile health app)
"...But here’s what I think might be new, or at least under-discussed: I am seeing mounting evidence that an increasing number of people are so used to algorithmically-generated feeds that they no longer care to have a self-directed experience that they are in control of. The more time I spend interacting with folks online, the more it feels like large swaths of people have forgotten to exercise their own agency. That is what I mean by algorithmic complacency. More and more people don’t seem to know or care how to view the world without a computer algorithm guiding what they see..."