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Starmer’s improving ratings – politicalbetting.com

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  • glwglw Posts: 10,290
    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 30,868

    Re Reeves, has it been mentioned that GDP has been revised upwards for each of the three quarters before she became Chancellor ?

    Her decisions to delay her budget for nearly four months and to spend that time badmouthing the economy looks evermore like a bad error.

    That golden legacy again.

    But delaying the budget was a poor show.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 54,907
    Cyclefree said:

    And those plot lines are real.

    But if @Leon can't be arsed, it'll have to be the sober non-fiction version.

    Sigh....!

    Don't miss out on the exotic sex though.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 30,868

    Taz said:

    EU plans concessions to the Trumpdozer after tariffs - Bloomberg

    https://x.com/wallstengine/status/1905609090606456980?s=61

    People looking for a western counterweight to Trump will need to look to Canada rather than Europe.

    What do you think about this one from your team? Critic of Putin arrested and due to be sent back to Russia.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/harvard-scientist-russia-deportation-antiwar-b2723063.html
    It sounds like she screwed up by trying to bring something into the country that she shouldn't have and is just using the war critic angle in a bid for sympathy.
    So she gets sent back to the tenth floor french windows.
    I don’t think she’s likely to be on anyone’s radar as a dissident.
    Having been poisoned in front of the world that's possibly what Navalny thought when he boarded the plane from Berlin.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 54,435

    Taz said:

    EU plans concessions to the Trumpdozer after tariffs - Bloomberg

    https://x.com/wallstengine/status/1905609090606456980?s=61

    People looking for a western counterweight to Trump will need to look to Canada rather than Europe.

    What do you think about this one from your team? Critic of Putin arrested and due to be sent back to Russia.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/harvard-scientist-russia-deportation-antiwar-b2723063.html
    It sounds like she screwed up by trying to bring something into the country that she shouldn't have and is just using the war critic angle in a bid for sympathy.
    So she gets sent back to the tenth floor french windows.
    I don’t think she’s likely to be on anyone’s radar as a dissident.
    Having been poisoned in front of the world that's possibly what Navalny thought when he boarded the plane from Berlin.
    He wasn’t an obscure scientist but a high-profile thorn in Putin’s side.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,590
    DavidL said:

    Cyclefree said:

    And those plot lines are real.

    But if @Leon can't be arsed, it'll have to be the sober non-fiction version.

    Sigh....!

    Don't miss out on the exotic sex though.
    Lawyers are simply the best. Just 2 posts and we got onto exotic sex. Even @Leon couldn't have co...(That's Enough! Ed)
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 4,422
    I noticed that NF is spouting at Nurembirmingham again.

    Ein bloke, Ein Pint, Ein Furher
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 30,868

    Taz said:

    EU plans concessions to the Trumpdozer after tariffs - Bloomberg

    https://x.com/wallstengine/status/1905609090606456980?s=61

    People looking for a western counterweight to Trump will need to look to Canada rather than Europe.

    What do you think about this one from your team? Critic of Putin arrested and due to be sent back to Russia.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/harvard-scientist-russia-deportation-antiwar-b2723063.html
    It sounds like she screwed up by trying to bring something into the country that she shouldn't have and is just using the war critic angle in a bid for sympathy.
    So she gets sent back to the tenth floor french windows.
    I don’t think she’s likely to be on anyone’s radar as a dissident.
    Having been poisoned in front of the world that's possibly what Navalny thought when he boarded the plane from Berlin.
    He wasn’t an obscure scientist but a high-profile thorn in Putin’s side.
    I suppose we shall just have to wait and see if she winds up in jail or on the sidewalk.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,844


    (((Harry Enten)))
    @ForecasterEnten
    ·
    4h
    Just 6% of Greenlanders want to join the United States. There are more people who think we faked the moon landing (~10%).

    85% of Greenlanders are opposed.

    Meanwhile, less than 30% of Americans want Greenland to join the U.S.

    I've rarely seen anything so unpopular.

    https://x.com/ForecasterEnten/status/1905634237639688413

    What percentage of Greenlanders think the US faked JD Vance?
    No chance.
    Surely they’d have done a better job ?
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 65,022
    glw said:

    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
    That is just fucking LOL in a demented kind of way.

    More chance of Elvis being found alive on the moon by Yemen astronauts than that being done in a few months.

    Food riots incoming.

    Probably what Project 2025 want.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,581
    edited March 28
    DavidL said:

    kle4 said:

    DavidL said:

    The BBC has commissioned a legal drama set in the "glossy, high-octane world of Glasgow lawyers".

    Counsels will follow "five young lawyers who once trained together at one of Scotland’s elite law schools, but are now scattered across the profession and find themselves facing each other in the courts of Glasgow".

    "Some will rise to the top, while others risk losing everything as their careers teeter on the edge when they lock horns in their biggest cases yet," the Beeb said in a press release.

    Counsels' "ambitious lawyers must navigate a legal battlefield where their friendships begin to fracture, love affairs crumble, and the fight for justice threatens to tear them all apart."

    Sadly, it means the vital work of transactional lawyers in non-contentious roles, poring over documents for hours on end, will continue to go ignored by the telly people.


    https://www.rollonfriday.com/news-content/bbc-capture-glossy-high-octane-world-glasgow-lawyers

    Well, that is because they are boring. Court is where the action is and we are way sexier than office based bureaucrats (sorry, my wife's laughter is distracting me).
    Suits with the Duchess of Sussex had its lawyers going to court pretty rarely. Of course law stuff is just backdrop for personal drama in those kind of shows, so not really legal dramas really.
    I quite enjoyed Suits although the premise underlying it was fairly absurd.


    LA Law was the best lawyer program ever. Susan Dey. Oh my word.
    Surely Ally McBeal? If only for Ooga-Chaka

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-5x5OXfe9KY
  • glwglw Posts: 10,290

    glw said:

    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
    That is just fucking LOL in a demented kind of way.

    More chance of Elvis being found alive on the moon by Yemen astronauts than that being done in a few months.

    Food riots incoming.

    Probably what Project 2025 want.
    The Twitter rewrite, Musk claimed it was necessary, still doesn't seem to have delivered anything of note. Messing with the SSA is on a completey different scale.
  • spudgfshspudgfsh Posts: 1,562
    glw said:

    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
    if done in the right way it could be done. feed the code into an LLM AI algorithm and it could produce something quite quickly that resembled the existing system.

    would I do it? god no. too much can go wrong
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 43,115
    His money probably didn’t but the odious little shite was uncharacteristically quiet.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 9,948
    Nigelb said:

    Taz said:

    EU plans concessions to the Trumpdozer after tariffs - Bloomberg

    https://x.com/wallstengine/status/1905609090606456980?s=61

    People looking for a western counterweight to Trump will need to look to Canada rather than Europe.

    What do you think about this one from your team? Critic of Putin arrested and due to be sent back to Russia.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/harvard-scientist-russia-deportation-antiwar-b2723063.html
    It sounds like she screwed up by trying to bring something into the country that she shouldn't have and is just using the war critic angle in a bid for sympathy.
    So she gets sent back to the tenth floor french windows.
    I don’t think she’s likely to be on anyone’s radar as a dissident.
    Having been poisoned in front of the world that's possibly what Navalny thought when he boarded the plane from Berlin.
    He wasn’t an obscure scientist but a high-profile thorn in Putin’s side.
    There are plenty of obscure Russians in Siberian jails for far less high profile expressions of opposition to the war.
    You’re either being naive or obtuse.
    Or secretly delighted. She is everything adherents to strongman politics hate - a brave, intelligent woman who stood up to the bully.

    She has been betrayed by the country that offered her sanctuary, to MAGA schadenfraude. Very Handmaid's tale.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 13,815

    An incredible letter:

    https://x.com/maxtempers/status/1905705215862657309

    Twenty (20) members of parliament have called for Britain to help build an INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT in Pakistan to help closen our ties with the Mirpuri community.

    ‘The Kashmiri diaspora in the UK […] have concerns regarding the journey times by road’

    A letter explaining how we did it, starting with the Roskill Commission from 1968, and from there taking exactly 57 years and continuing to not start building one, might give them a steer as to why we are the 'go to' nation for that sort of help.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,868

    glw said:

    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
    That is just fucking LOL in a demented kind of way.

    More chance of Elvis being found alive on the moon by Yemen astronauts than that being done in a few months.

    Food riots incoming.

    Probably what Project 2025 want.
    Steve Davis' career took an "interesting" turn.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,256
    edited March 28
    For 'charismatic founder' read 'obvious bullshitter'. Not enough of these people are caught, though admittedly many are not as brazen. People and institutions are desperate to find the next disruptor.

    Charlie Javice, the charismatic founder of a startup company that claimed to be revolutionizing the way college students apply for financial aid, was convicted on Friday of defrauding one of the largest U.S. banks, JPMorgan Chase, out of $175 million by exaggerating her customer base by 10 times...

    Javice is among a number of young tech executives who vaulted to fame and media accolades with supposedly disruptive or transformative companies, only to see their businesses collapse amid questions about whether they had engaged in puffery and fraud while dealing with investors

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/charlie-javice-convicted-of-defrauding-jpmorgan-during-175-million-sale-of-financial-aid-startup/ar-AA1BRJ3O?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=d85d2e57f8d34867e3772f5416388ea3&ei=7
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 65,022

    Kyle Griffin
    @kylegriffin1

    NBC News confirms: In the unsecured Signal group chat, national security advisor Michael Waltz referred to a Houthi militant targeted in U.S. air strike.

    Israel provided the sensitive intelligence on that Houthi militant, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter. @MSNBC

    https://x.com/kylegriffin1/status/1905732904887755076
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 65,022
    kle4 said:

    For 'charismatic founder' read 'obvious bullshitter'. Not enough of these people are caught, though admittedly many are not as brazen. People and institutions are desperate to find the next disruptor.

    Charlie Javice, the charismatic founder of a startup company that claimed to be revolutionizing the way college students apply for financial aid, was convicted on Friday of defrauding one of the largest U.S. banks, JPMorgan Chase, out of $175 million by exaggerating her customer base by 10 times...

    Javice is among a number of young tech executives who vaulted to fame and media accolades with supposedly disruptive or transformative companies, only to see their businesses collapse amid questions about whether they had engaged in puffery and fraud while dealing with investors

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/charlie-javice-convicted-of-defrauding-jpmorgan-during-175-million-sale-of-financial-aid-startup/ar-AA1BRJ3O?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=d85d2e57f8d34867e3772f5416388ea3&ei=7

    Sounds like she is ideal for the US Cabinet.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,844
    glw said:

    glw said:

    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
    That is just fucking LOL in a demented kind of way.

    More chance of Elvis being found alive on the moon by Yemen astronauts than that being done in a few months.

    Food riots incoming.

    Probably what Project 2025 want.
    The Twitter rewrite, Musk claimed it was necessary, still doesn't seem to have delivered anything of note. Messing with the SSA is on a completey different scale.
    Whatever they did to it, it’s feeding me way more shitty videos, no matter how often I block them.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,256
    It's a kinder, gentler country in Canada.

    Paul Chiang, the Liberal candidate seeking re-election in Markham-Unionville, has apologized for “deplorable” comments he says he made at an ethnic media gathering in January, where he told a Chinese-language news outlet how to claim a bounty on a Conservative candidate in Toronto.

    In comments made to Ming Sheng Bao, the Canadian subsidiary of Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao, Chiang referenced a $1 million (HKD) bounty Hong Kong police had placed on Tay — about $184,000 — and said that if anyone present at the event brought him to the Chinese consulate general in Toronto, they could obtain the reward.

    “The comments I made were deplorable and a complete lapse of judgment on the seriousness of the matter. As a former police officer, I should have known better. I sincerely apologize and deeply regret my comments,” Chiang wrote on X Friday afternoon.

    https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/liberal-candidate-in-markham-apologizes-for-deplorable-comments-about-former-conservative-rival/article_2d0ecc7b-81e1-4aa1-9e49-dd47461c1322.html
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 65,022
    glw said:

    glw said:

    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
    That is just fucking LOL in a demented kind of way.

    More chance of Elvis being found alive on the moon by Yemen astronauts than that being done in a few months.

    Food riots incoming.

    Probably what Project 2025 want.
    The Twitter rewrite, Musk claimed it was necessary, still doesn't seem to have delivered anything of note. Messing with the SSA is on a completey different scale.
    The basic idea, if one can believe there is actual some kind of thought or idea behind all this shite, is that the massive federal government dealing with millions of people, can be destroyed and then rebooted as if is just another code rewrite hack by a five man agile team in a silicon valley gaming startup.

    It's insane.
  • glwglw Posts: 10,290
    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    glw said:

    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
    That is just fucking LOL in a demented kind of way.

    More chance of Elvis being found alive on the moon by Yemen astronauts than that being done in a few months.

    Food riots incoming.

    Probably what Project 2025 want.
    The Twitter rewrite, Musk claimed it was necessary, still doesn't seem to have delivered anything of note. Messing with the SSA is on a completey different scale.
    Whatever they did to it, it’s feeding me way more shitty videos, no matter how often I block them.
    That's just the regular monkeying around with the codebase and service parameters. Musk said they were going to do a complete rewrite years ago, so that Twitter could become an "app for everything" like WeChat, which is his model for what Twitter should be.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,844
    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,256
    glw said:

    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    glw said:

    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
    That is just fucking LOL in a demented kind of way.

    More chance of Elvis being found alive on the moon by Yemen astronauts than that being done in a few months.

    Food riots incoming.

    Probably what Project 2025 want.
    The Twitter rewrite, Musk claimed it was necessary, still doesn't seem to have delivered anything of note. Messing with the SSA is on a completey different scale.
    Whatever they did to it, it’s feeding me way more shitty videos, no matter how often I block them.
    That's just the regular monkeying around with the codebase and service parameters. Musk said they were going to do a complete rewrite years ago, so that Twitter could become an "app for everything" like WeChat, which is his model for what Twitter should be.
    I'm sure it is, but are people really suffering from not being able to do everything through twitter? It feels like a hard sell even before he went comic book villain on everyone.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 54,435
    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    When the President says, "We've got to have Greenland," he's saying, "This island is not safe."
  • nico67nico67 Posts: 4,931

    glw said:

    glw said:

    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
    That is just fucking LOL in a demented kind of way.

    More chance of Elvis being found alive on the moon by Yemen astronauts than that being done in a few months.

    Food riots incoming.

    Probably what Project 2025 want.
    The Twitter rewrite, Musk claimed it was necessary, still doesn't seem to have delivered anything of note. Messing with the SSA is on a completey different scale.
    The basic idea, if one can believe there is actual some kind of thought or idea behind all this shite, is that the massive federal government dealing with millions of people, can be destroyed and then rebooted as if is just another code rewrite hack by a five man agile team in a silicon valley gaming startup.

    It's insane.
    I doubt they’ll be doing much close to the mid-terms so if it drags on then I expect they’ll delay it .
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 3,221
    This could explain many things:

    "[Hannah] Davis is one of an estimated 20 million Americans and 400 million people worldwide who have had long covid, in which symptoms persist or newly develop more than three months after a coronavirus infection.

    Neurocognitive symptoms of long covid are among the most common, affecting 18 to 36 percent of patients — and among the most devastating. Many people have reported cognitive disabilities, with some having to stop working."

    (Links omitted.)
    source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2025/03/27/long-covid-brain-cognition/
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 54,435
    The production values at Farage’s rallies are getting more slick:

    https://x.com/politlcsuk/status/1905731528421966063
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,844
    Four Seasons Total Landscaping throws in the towel.

    OK guys, we’ve had a good run but we know when we’re beaten. We held onto the title for 4 years, 4 months, and 20 days, but JD Vance & the Pituffik USAF base are now worthy holders of the saddest, most pathetic, cringiest press conference of all time.
    https://x.com/TotalSeasons/status/1905733832307089678

    Somehow appropriate that Rudy next to the dildo store is finally dethroned by JD at the Pitiffuk.
  • glwglw Posts: 10,290
    kle4 said:

    I'm sure it is, but are people really suffering from not being able to do everything through twitter? It feels like a hard sell even before he went comic book villain on everyone.

    No I don't think so. Some people who know more about this than me think it's a bad idea anyway, as they believe the different cultures in the West and Asia make Westerners prefer single or limited focus services, and Asians prefer more integrated broader services. So if that's true, a lot of people wouldn't want or use the "app for everything" bits.
  • glwglw Posts: 10,290
    Ah I see Musk has just sold Twitter to himself.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 54,435
    glw said:

    Ah I see Musk has just sold Twitter to himself.

    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1905731750275510312

    @xAI has acquired @X in an all-stock transaction. The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt).
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,795

    Foss said:

    kinabalu said:

    The BBC has commissioned a legal drama set in the "glossy, high-octane world of Glasgow lawyers".

    Counsels will follow "five young lawyers who once trained together at one of Scotland’s elite law schools, but are now scattered across the profession and find themselves facing each other in the courts of Glasgow".

    "Some will rise to the top, while others risk losing everything as their careers teeter on the edge when they lock horns in their biggest cases yet," the Beeb said in a press release.

    Counsels' "ambitious lawyers must navigate a legal battlefield where their friendships begin to fracture, love affairs crumble, and the fight for justice threatens to tear them all apart."

    Sadly, it means the vital work of transactional lawyers in non-contentious roles, poring over documents for hours on end, will continue to go ignored by the telly people.


    https://www.rollonfriday.com/news-content/bbc-capture-glossy-high-octane-world-glasgow-lawyers

    This whole tv legal drama thing is getting stale. What I'd like to see for a change (and I think I speak for many) is something focused on an Accountancy practice. There's plenty of thrills and spills there, I can assure you. So let's get a top writing team on that. It can still be set in Glasgow if that's deemed important.
    There's a Ben Affleck flick where he plays an accountant. It appears to be a far more
    violent trade than my careers advisor led me to believe.
    My wife is in the sequel. So going to see it is mandatory for you all 😁
    The Ben Affleck flick is nonsense. What kind of a CPA would use 0.5 BMG, when Lapua .338 offers nearly the same performance in a cheaper, smaller platform with a much lower impact on the shooter?
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 65,022

    glw said:

    Ah I see Musk has just sold Twitter to himself.

    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1905731750275510312

    @xAI has acquired @X in an all-stock transaction. The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt).
    "X is the digital town square where more than 600M active users go to find the real-time source of ground truth"

    Just LOL
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 65,022
    Nigelb said:

    Four Seasons Total Landscaping throws in the towel.

    OK guys, we’ve had a good run but we know when we’re beaten. We held onto the title for 4 years, 4 months, and 20 days, but JD Vance & the Pituffik USAF base are now worthy holders of the saddest, most pathetic, cringiest press conference of all time.
    https://x.com/TotalSeasons/status/1905733832307089678

    Somehow appropriate that Rudy next to the dildo store is finally dethroned by JD at the Pitiffuk.

    Thoughts and prayers for his wife.

  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 65,022

    The production values at Farage’s rallies are getting more slick:

    https://x.com/politlcsuk/status/1905731528421966063

    All looks a bit Donald fucking Trump to me.

    Britain Trump.

    He'll have Musk gutting the bones of the entire UK government given a sniff of power.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 65,022
    "Reform will Fix It" seems to be the new slogan for local elections.

  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,744
    rcs1000 said:

    JD Vance:

    "If an enemy fired a missile on the U.S., it would be the American soldiers at the Greenland base who would alert their countrymen".

    Really?

    Yeah, possibly so, but the US already has that base. What more does it need?
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 65,022
    Woman sacked by DOGE's Big Balls team from a revenue department, who voted for Trump, now gets death threats for voicing her concerns that he has let her down.




    CALL TO ACTIVISM
    @CalltoActivism
    ·
    1h
    JUST NOW: A self identified “MAGA junkie” says she regrets her vote and has taken down her Trump sign after she was fired by DOGE.

    The firing took her completely by surprise because she had the highest job performance rating.

    Do you think she deserves it?

    https://x.com/CalltoActivism/status/1905727976723120381
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 65,022
    Farage agrees Gordon Brown was right about universal benefits.

  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 23,925
    glw said:

    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
    If they pull it off I will be very impressed. COBOL is one of the oldest languages on my CV and I get quite nostalgic about it. But it is a very big ask.

    Incidentally isn't Java around 30yrs old now? Hardly modern.
  • pm215pm215 Posts: 1,222
    glw said:

    kle4 said:

    I'm sure it is, but are people really suffering from not being able to do everything through twitter? It feels like a hard sell even before he went comic book villain on everyone.

    No I don't think so. Some people who know more about this than me think it's a bad idea anyway, as they believe the different cultures in the West and Asia make Westerners prefer single or limited focus services, and Asians prefer more integrated broader services. So if that's true, a lot of people wouldn't want or use the "app for everything" bits.
    The argument I've seen is not a west-vs-east culture distinction, but instead a market structure one: that either "each use case has a big company dominant in that niche" (like the current western market) or "each big company has an app that runs horizontally across many use cases" (like the current Chinese market) is stable, but once there's an existing set of big companies then trying to be a company that's the "wrong shape" doesn't work, because consumers don't expect it and don't see the benefit and you're trying to compete with the dominant incumbents.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 23,925

    Andy_JS said:

    "How History Begins Again
    A Point of View

    The celebrated American theorist, Francis Fukuyama, in his book 'The End of History and the Last Man' argued that US-style liberalism was the ultimate destination for all mankind, 'the final form of human government'.

    John Gray explains why he believes his prophecy has been turned on its head.

    'As in the past, many human beings will live under tyrannies, theocracies, and empires of various kinds,' John writes. 'Failed states and zones of anarchy will be common. Democratic nations are likely to be rare, and often short-lived.'"

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00290fh

    ...We are about to enter unprecedented technological and biological changes....
    We are not the Borg 😀
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,795
    viewcode said:

    glw said:

    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
    If they pull it off I will be very impressed. COBOL is one of the oldest languages on my CV and I get quite nostalgic about it. But it is a very big ask.

    Incidentally isn't Java around 30yrs old now? Hardly modern.
    Java won the back end wars. Used for a lot of stuff, server side. Plus easy to convert to other modern languages.

    Current project I’m working in - we got rid of COBOL and replaced it with Java.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 10,656
    Cyclefree said:

    DavidL said:

    Cyclefree said:

    And those plot lines are real.

    But if @Leon can't be arsed, it'll have to be the sober non-fiction version.

    Sigh....!

    Don't miss out on the exotic sex though.
    Lawyers are simply the best. Just 2 posts and we got onto exotic sex. Even @Leon couldn't have co...(That's Enough! Ed)
    Well there is exotic sex and what lawyers think is exotic sex....just saying
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 10,656

    viewcode said:

    glw said:

    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
    If they pull it off I will be very impressed. COBOL is one of the oldest languages on my CV and I get quite nostalgic about it. But it is a very big ask.

    Incidentally isn't Java around 30yrs old now? Hardly modern.
    Java won the back end wars. Used for a lot of stuff, server side. Plus easy to convert to other modern languages.

    Current project I’m working in - we got rid of COBOL and replaced it with Java.
    oh ffs no one who uses java if they can help it....mostly c# now
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,795
    Pagan2 said:

    viewcode said:

    glw said:

    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
    If they pull it off I will be very impressed. COBOL is one of the oldest languages on my CV and I get quite nostalgic about it. But it is a very big ask.

    Incidentally isn't Java around 30yrs old now? Hardly modern.
    Java won the back end wars. Used for a lot of stuff, server side. Plus easy to convert to other modern languages.

    Current project I’m working in - we got rid of COBOL and replaced it with Java.
    oh ffs no one who uses java if they can help it....mostly c# now
    Most of the banks are Java shops. C# seems to have died there.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 53,382
    viewcode said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "How History Begins Again
    A Point of View

    The celebrated American theorist, Francis Fukuyama, in his book 'The End of History and the Last Man' argued that US-style liberalism was the ultimate destination for all mankind, 'the final form of human government'.

    John Gray explains why he believes his prophecy has been turned on its head.

    'As in the past, many human beings will live under tyrannies, theocracies, and empires of various kinds,' John writes. 'Failed states and zones of anarchy will be common. Democratic nations are likely to be rare, and often short-lived.'"

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00290fh

    ...We are about to enter unprecedented technological and biological changes....
    We are not the Borg 😀
    "Sounds Swedish..."
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 18,159

    "Reform will Fix It" seems to be the new slogan for local elections.

    Remind me... who else had "[blank]'ll fix it" as their slogan? Someone splendid, I'm sure.
  • eekeek Posts: 29,487
    edited March 28

    "Reform will Fix It" seems to be the new slogan for local elections.

    Remind me... who else had "[blank]'ll fix it" as their slogan? Someone splendid, I'm sure.
    Well my cousin Tim used to it for his handyman business but he scrapped the branding back in 2011...

    Separately there was a story earlier this week on why so more women work in mortuaries compared to men - don't know what the 2 things have in common..
  • nico67nico67 Posts: 4,931

    Woman sacked by DOGE's Big Balls team from a revenue department, who voted for Trump, now gets death threats for voicing her concerns that he has let her down.




    CALL TO ACTIVISM
    @CalltoActivism
    ·
    1h
    JUST NOW: A self identified “MAGA junkie” says she regrets her vote and has taken down her Trump sign after she was fired by DOGE.

    The firing took her completely by surprise because she had the highest job performance rating.

    Do you think she deserves it?

    https://x.com/CalltoActivism/status/1905727976723120381

    She was happy to vote for him thinking all the bad things would happen to other people and now she’s got buyers remorse . Trump voters who are now being screwed are getting their just desserts . She can cut the whining and own her moronic vote !
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 65,022

    Jennifer Bendery
    @jbendery
    ·
    21m
    NEW YORK (AP) — Judge blocks Trump administration from firing staff of Voice of America, the U.S. government’s global news service.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,256

    "Reform will Fix It" seems to be the new slogan for local elections.

    Their mailer to me doesn't seem to suggest anything to fix local government, unless stopping the boats will fix everything.

    (Assuming for sake of argument it would fix some things, I don't think it'll have any immediate positive impact on soaring cost of SEND transport or social care for example, and even if it could, voting for them at the locals won't help get to stopping boats directly).

    But they do seem to be making an actual concerted effort at the locals this year, so I have to applaud them for that.
  • MonkeysMonkeys Posts: 764
    edited March 28
    Skimming through the tables in the Ipsos polling, "Very/Fairly Unfavourable" for Starmer is at 24% amongst 2024 Labour voters. NOT IDEAL.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 34,112
    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "How History Begins Again
    A Point of View

    The celebrated American theorist, Francis Fukuyama, in his book 'The End of History and the Last Man' argued that US-style liberalism was the ultimate destination for all mankind, 'the final form of human government'.

    John Gray explains why he believes his prophecy has been turned on its head.

    'As in the past, many human beings will live under tyrannies, theocracies, and empires of various kinds,' John writes. 'Failed states and zones of anarchy will be common. Democratic nations are likely to be rare, and often short-lived.'"

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00290fh

    I do like an optimist.
    Is there any sign at all that people in the likes of China, Russia, etc, are going to be living in a real democracy any time soon?
  • RogerRoger Posts: 20,256
    rcs1000 said:

    JD Vance:

    "If an enemy fired a missile on the U.S., it would be the American soldiers at the Greenland base who would alert their countrymen".

    Really?

    Sounds like a scene from MASH
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 53,382

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    When the President says, "We've got to have Greenland," he's saying, "This island is not safe."
    "Nuuk the bastards!"
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 14,224
    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    "Creepy" Yeah. That's the word.

    It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe but won't say one word in defence of an ally who is having their territorial integrity credibly threatened.

    I expect the US will get Greenland sooner or later. They already have it de facto because if Denmark told the US to clear out of Moonbase Alpha they wouldn't leave. Then what?
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,492
    'Farage has set out Reform’s stance on the US trade deal - he wants to import 'chlorine washed chicken', prioritising US farmers and undercutting our British farmers who produce food to high welfare standards. Just like Labour, he’s not on your side.'

    https://x.com/VictoriaAtkins/status/1905597087510622240
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 34,112
    edited March 29
    Starmer's doing a pretty good job at the moment imo but the best thing he could do next would be to pass legislation to force the Sentencing Council to drop their new recommendations. If he does that Labour's support could go back up to 30% in the polls.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 34,112
    "Mark Carney accused of plagiarism in Oxford thesis
    Canadian prime minister forced to deny allegations he copied 10 passages of text for 1995 doctorate" (£)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/03/28/mark-carney-accused-of-plagiarising-oxford-thesis/
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,155
    Taz said:

    MattW said:

    Have we done Darren Grimes, Reform UK candidate for Tanfield Plain and Anfield? He probably doesn't mean the Overton Window. I'm not quite sure on the spellings.

    I’ve never been in a window before – so that’s a first. I walked away from a well-paid job, a cosy number in tellyland, to come back home and stick my neck out for the people, the places – and yes, even the pothole-riddled, bin-missed, crime-plagued paradise that is my beloved county. Some say I’m mad. My bank manager certainly does. But me? Not a flicker of regret. This is principled madness – which makes it all the more hilarious when the oat-milk Marxists screech ‘far-right grifter’ from their London postcodes and subsidised smugness. If this is a grift, I’m doing it wrong – we pay £444 more in council tax up here than Buckingham bloody Palace. My media work will speak for my people. My political work will aim to DO for them. That’s what really terrifies the lefty lot who’ve had it all their own way for far too long.

    (I may just have missed this one from Twitter).

    Tanfield and Annfield Plain, surely ?
    I tried to check it, but did not get very far.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,155
    edited March 29

    An incredible letter:

    https://x.com/maxtempers/status/1905705215862657309

    Twenty (20) members of parliament have called for Britain to help build an INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT in Pakistan to help closen our ties with the Mirpuri community.

    ‘The Kashmiri diaspora in the UK […] have concerns regarding the journey times by road’

    Nope - it's standard twitter twattery. The claim made is garbage. I have no idea whether tweeter is a lazy wazzock or a deliberate mouth breathing shit-stirrer. I wonder if any PBers will jump on this? :smile:

    It's a letter from 20 UK MPs to the PM of Pakistan asking him to progress an airport used by their constituents who travel there to visit family. No proposal for UK involvement whatsoever - but gullibles will fall for it.

    It's worth noting that the writer who tweeted the letter himself says that there is no call for UK finding.

    Page 1. Page 2 and sigs are at the link:

    https://x.com/khalid4pb/status/1905675847475802135
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,934
    Look at the map, and the solution appears obvious: Greenland should be part of Canada.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,581
    nico67 said:

    Woman sacked by DOGE's Big Balls team from a revenue department, who voted for Trump, now gets death threats for voicing her concerns that he has let her down.




    CALL TO ACTIVISM
    @CalltoActivism
    ·
    1h
    JUST NOW: A self identified “MAGA junkie” says she regrets her vote and has taken down her Trump sign after she was fired by DOGE.

    The firing took her completely by surprise because she had the highest job performance rating.

    Do you think she deserves it?

    https://x.com/CalltoActivism/status/1905727976723120381

    She was happy to vote for him thinking all the bad things would happen to other people and now she’s got buyers remorse . Trump voters who are now being screwed are getting their just desserts . She can cut the whining and own her moronic vote !
    Once again, she messed up. She knows that she messed up and she regrets it.

    You need to make it easy for people in her position to join you rather than gleefully calling them morons.

    Otherwise you will for ever caper on the sidelines confident in your moral superiority as Trump and his acolytes destroy the world that we know

  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,155
    Updates on the sinking Tourist Submarine in Egypt, from a beat reporter.

    Report. It sank whilst still tied to its boarding platform.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsOnzA-SQWI

    Footage taken on board whilst the submarine sank. Also footage of one burnt out ship that was in the collision outside Hull a couple of weeks ago arriving in Aberdeen.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tScDGKMgIOs&t=10s
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 45,098
    MattW said:

    An incredible letter:

    https://x.com/maxtempers/status/1905705215862657309

    Twenty (20) members of parliament have called for Britain to help build an INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT in Pakistan to help closen our ties with the Mirpuri community.

    ‘The Kashmiri diaspora in the UK […] have concerns regarding the journey times by road’

    Nope - it's standard twitter twattery. The claim made is garbage. I have no idea whether tweeter is a lazy wazzock or a deliberate mouth breathing shit-stirrer. I wonder if any PBers will jump on this? :smile:

    It's a letter from 20 UK MPs to the PM of Pakistan asking him to progress an airport used by their constituents who travel there to visit family. No proposal for UK involvement whatsoever - but gullibles will fall for it.

    It's worth noting that the writer who tweeted the letter himself says that there is no call for UK finding.

    Page 1. Page 2 and sigs are at the link:

    https://x.com/khalid4pb/status/1905675847475802135
    It should be remembered that the UK (and UK construction companies) did rather well out of the construction of the Hong Kong international airport in the early 1990s, along with the associated (massive) bridge and other related infrastructure. So much so, in fact that the Chinese government complained the whole thing was just an attempt to get money out of the HK economy before the handover.

    The airport was built in a *very* short timespan. It can be done, by us. So if the Pakistani government would like to pay us to make the airport: I'm all in favour... :)
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,844
    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    "Creepy" Yeah. That's the word.

    It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe but won't say one word in defence of an ally who is having their territorial integrity credibly threatened.

    I expect the US will get Greenland sooner or later. They already have it de facto because if Denmark told the US to clear out of Moonbase Alpha they wouldn't leave. Then what?
    I think you're wrong; we'll see.

    And no one is going to tell them to leave; they have a treaty right to the base - and several more, if they want
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,215

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    When the President says, "We've got to have Greenland," he's saying, "This island is not safe."
    "Nice glaciers you've got here. Be a shame if they were all to melt.."
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 45,098
    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    "Creepy" Yeah. That's the word.

    It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe but won't say one word in defence of an ally who is having their territorial integrity credibly threatened.

    I expect the US will get Greenland sooner or later. They already have it de facto because if Denmark told the US to clear out of Moonbase Alpha they wouldn't leave. Then what?
    "It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe "

    It's quite simple. It's spending money now to avoid a wider, and more expensive, war later.

    You'd quite like a wider war. Or for Russia to gain all of Eastern Europe.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,581
    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    "Creepy" Yeah. That's the word.

    It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe but won't say one word in defence of an ally who is having their territorial integrity credibly threatened.

    I expect the US will get Greenland sooner or later. They already have it de facto because if Denmark told the US to clear out of Moonbase Alpha they wouldn't leave. Then what?
    I think you're wrong; we'll see.

    And no one is going to tell them to leave; they have a treaty right to the base - and several more, if they want
    That’s what I don’t understand

    Why not reopen 3-4 other bases there and call it a win?
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 45,098

    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    "Creepy" Yeah. That's the word.

    It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe but won't say one word in defence of an ally who is having their territorial integrity credibly threatened.

    I expect the US will get Greenland sooner or later. They already have it de facto because if Denmark told the US to clear out of Moonbase Alpha they wouldn't leave. Then what?
    I think you're wrong; we'll see.

    And no one is going to tell them to leave; they have a treaty right to the base - and several more, if they want
    That’s what I don’t understand

    Why not reopen 3-4 other bases there and call it a win?
    My *guess* is that that's not a big enough win. For Trump and the MAGA shitheads. For them, making America great involves expanding it - which is the same mindset Putin has with Russia. Although Putin is trying to do it 'diplomatically' by subverting target democracies as well as by force of arms, whereas Trump and MAGA are happily destroying many of their existing friendly diplomatic ties.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,934

    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    "Creepy" Yeah. That's the word.

    It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe but won't say one word in defence of an ally who is having their territorial integrity credibly threatened.

    I expect the US will get Greenland sooner or later. They already have it de facto because if Denmark told the US to clear out of Moonbase Alpha they wouldn't leave. Then what?
    I think you're wrong; we'll see.

    And no one is going to tell them to leave; they have a treaty right to the base - and several more, if they want
    That’s what I don’t understand

    Why not reopen 3-4 other bases there and call it a win?
    All Trump remembers from school history lessons is the names of the presidents who added territory to the early days of the US, and he wants to be similarly remembered. That’s really all there is to it.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,844
    edited March 29

    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    "Creepy" Yeah. That's the word.

    It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe but won't say one word in defence of an ally who is having their territorial integrity credibly threatened.

    I expect the US will get Greenland sooner or later. They already have it de facto because if Denmark told the US to clear out of Moonbase Alpha they wouldn't leave. Then what?
    I think you're wrong; we'll see.

    And no one is going to tell them to leave; they have a treaty right to the base - and several more, if they want
    That’s what I don’t understand

    Why not reopen 3-4 other bases there and call it a win?
    Why not force Putin into a peace agreement, and let Europe police it ?
    That's very probably within the capacity of the US at this point, if they were prepared to commit the resources, and the political will.

    Instead, they appear to want to force some sort of capitulation from Ukraine, which Ukraine isn't going to accept, and which gives Putin a reason to keep going.

    I don't think either policy is particularly rational. It's just not very smart people trying to be a tough guys and get one over on everyone else.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 45,098
    The descent of America countinues:

    "On Sunday night, I will give a talk in Wisconsin.

    To clarify a previous post, entrance is limited to those who have signed the petition in opposition to activist judges.

    I will also hand over checks for a million dollars to 2 people to be spokesmen for the petition."

    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1905673297439666486
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,155
    edited March 29
    rcs1000 said:

    JD Vance:

    "If an enemy fired a missile on the U.S., it would be the American soldiers at the Greenland base who would alert their countrymen".

    Really?

    Thule (now called Pituffik) is one of the places (others in Canada, Norway I think) which has radar looking for incoming Soviet missiles.

    So Vance is correct on this (particular) point.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,934
    MattW said:

    rcs1000 said:

    JD Vance:

    "If an enemy fired a missile on the U.S., it would be the American soldiers at the Greenland base who would alert their countrymen".

    Really?

    Thule (now called Pituffik) is one of the places (others in Canada, Norway I think) which has radar looking for incoming Soviet missiles.

    Or Pitiffuk, as it is known to its dyslexic residents
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,155
    edited March 29
    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    "Creepy" Yeah. That's the word.

    It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe but won't say one word in defence of an ally who is having their territorial integrity credibly threatened.

    I expect the US will get Greenland sooner or later. They already have it de facto because if Denmark told the US to clear out of Moonbase Alpha they wouldn't leave. Then what?
    That's what happened after the war. The USA said no.

    After liberation, Denmark ratified the Kauffmann treaty but began efforts to take over US installations. Nonetheless, in summer 1946, the radio and weather station was enhanced with a gravel airstrip and an upper-air (balloon) observatory. This was part of an American-Canadian initiative to construct joint weather stations in the High Arctic. This station was under joint US-Danish operation. The location changed from the civilian village at Thule (Dundas) to mainland Pituffik. In 1946–1951, the airstrip played an important role in Arctic resupply, aerial mapping, research, and search-and rescue.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pituffik_Space_Base
  • FishingFishing Posts: 5,447
    edited March 29
    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    "Creepy" Yeah. That's the word.

    It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe but won't say one word in defence of an ally who is having their territorial integrity credibly threatened.

    I expect the US will get Greenland sooner or later. They already have it de facto because if Denmark told the US to clear out of Moonbase Alpha they wouldn't leave. Then what?
    It's quite impressive writing so much ill-informed crap in one short post.

    I'm no fan of the dismal Starmer, but a ten second Google showed that he HAS spoken up against Trump's land grab in Greenland:

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/starmer-trump-greenland-denmark-nato-b2691967.html

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14362889/Keir-Starmer-Danish-PM-unity-Greenland-security-Donald-Trump-demands-annex-Arctic-territory.html

    He is cutting social spending in the UK, not to prolong the war in Ukraine, but because his disastrous economic policies have kicked the economy in the balls.

    He's helping the Ukrainians, inadequately in my view, not spend money but to save it - if Russia advanced further, we'd have to spend even more on defence, not less.

    And the US doesn't have Greenland de facto or de jure - it is an independent kingdom under the King of Denmark de jure, and Denmark's de facto. If the Greenlanders or the Danes wanted the American base gone, the Americans would have to leave. But they don't, so it's a pointless hypothetical.

    Anyway, enough of correcting rubbish - I'm going to do something less painful like stick a needle in my eye.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,844
    .
    IanB2 said:

    MattW said:

    rcs1000 said:

    JD Vance:

    "If an enemy fired a missile on the U.S., it would be the American soldiers at the Greenland base who would alert their countrymen".

    Really?

    Thule (now called Pituffik) is one of the places (others in Canada, Norway I think) which has radar looking for incoming Soviet missiles.

    Or Pitiffuk, as it is known to its dyslexic residents
    The name actually means "the place the dogs are tied".
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 13,333
    Andy_JS said:

    Starmer's doing a pretty good job at the moment imo but the best thing he could do next would be to pass legislation to force the Sentencing Council to drop their new recommendations. If he does that Labour's support could go back up to 30% in the polls.

    You are in a social media bubble. This is not an issue exercising the public at large.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,581
    edited March 29

    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    "Creepy" Yeah. That's the word.

    It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe but won't say one word in defence of an ally who is having their territorial integrity credibly threatened.

    I expect the US will get Greenland sooner or later. They already have it de facto because if Denmark told the US to clear out of Moonbase Alpha they wouldn't leave. Then what?
    I think you're wrong; we'll see.

    And no one is going to tell them to leave; they have a treaty right to the base - and several more, if they want
    That’s what I don’t understand

    Why not reopen 3-4 other bases there and call it a win?
    My *guess* is that that's not a big enough win. For Trump and the MAGA shitheads. For them, making America great involves expanding it - which is the same mindset Putin has with Russia. Although Putin is trying to do it 'diplomatically' by subverting target democracies as well as by force of arms, whereas Trump and MAGA are happily destroying many of their existing friendly diplomatic ties.
    Open up 3 more bases

    Tweet : Victory! Denmark concedes! American troops will be stationed in Greenland to protect our nations security! Biden couldn’t do this - he left our great country at risk!

    That gets him what he needs. Everyone else shrugs
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 62,084
    The person who should be most worried is Kemi Badenoch.

    She isn't even mentioned in the thread header, and is behind Ed Davey!
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,844
    MattW said:

    rcs1000 said:

    JD Vance:

    "If an enemy fired a missile on the U.S., it would be the American soldiers at the Greenland base who would alert their countrymen".

    Really?

    Thule (now called Pituffik) is one of the places (others in Canada, Norway I think) which has radar looking for incoming Soviet missiles.

    So Vance is correct on this (particular) point.
    Well he probably isn't, as all manner of routes are available to current ICBMs - and launches would anyway very likely be detected first by satellite, but that's quibbling.

    It was of more strategic importance in the bombed era, pre ICBMs, which is why it's such an enormous base.
    Still pretty important as part of the radar chain, though, and it also provides a satellite control and communications base.

  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,051
    Nigelb said:

    .

    IanB2 said:

    MattW said:

    rcs1000 said:

    JD Vance:

    "If an enemy fired a missile on the U.S., it would be the American soldiers at the Greenland base who would alert their countrymen".

    Really?

    Thule (now called Pituffik) is one of the places (others in Canada, Norway I think) which has radar looking for incoming Soviet missiles.

    Or Pitiffuk, as it is known to its dyslexic residents
    The name actually means "the place the dogs are tied".
    Is Vance into doggy style?

    And with whom?
  • BattlebusBattlebus Posts: 623
    Has Leon surfaced after his sojourn to Spoons in T4? Anyway I’m now in Tim Hortons in the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. Very busy in a multi polar world sort of way.

    Perhaps Putin is correct in claiming the world is multipolar and he does hold all the cards. The implication is that the strong can grasp what they want. Ukraine for the Russians, Gaza for the Israelis, Taiwan for the Chinese or whatever whim takes them. Perhaps we should all get more.

    Today’s pic

  • No_Offence_AlanNo_Offence_Alan Posts: 4,911
    IanB2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    "Creepy" Yeah. That's the word.

    It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe but won't say one word in defence of an ally who is having their territorial integrity credibly threatened.

    I expect the US will get Greenland sooner or later. They already have it de facto because if Denmark told the US to clear out of Moonbase Alpha they wouldn't leave. Then what?
    I think you're wrong; we'll see.

    And no one is going to tell them to leave; they have a treaty right to the base - and several more, if they want
    That’s what I don’t understand

    Why not reopen 3-4 other bases there and call it a win?
    All Trump remembers from school history lessons is the names of the presidents who added territory to the early days of the US, and he wants to be similarly remembered. That’s really all there is to it.
    Puerto Rico is there, all he has to do is ask.
  • No_Offence_AlanNo_Offence_Alan Posts: 4,911
    edited March 29
    glw said:

    Anyone else seen this brilliant plan?

    The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

    The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months


    As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found.


    https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
    "The legacy system is the one that works"
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,844
    Fishing said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    "Creepy" Yeah. That's the word.

    It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe but won't say one word in defence of an ally who is having their territorial integrity credibly threatened.

    I expect the US will get Greenland sooner or later. They already have it de facto because if Denmark told the US to clear out of Moonbase Alpha they wouldn't leave. Then what?
    It's quite impressive writing so much ill-informed crap in one short post.

    I'm no fan of the dismal Starmer, but a ten second Google showed that he HAS spoken up against Trump's land grab in Greenland:

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/starmer-trump-greenland-denmark-nato-b2691967.html

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14362889/Keir-Starmer-Danish-PM-unity-Greenland-security-Donald-Trump-demands-annex-Arctic-territory.html

    He is cutting social spending in the UK, not to prolong the war in Ukraine, but because his disastrous economic policies have kicked the economy in the balls.

    He's helping the Ukrainians, inadequately in my view, not spend money but to save it - if Russia advanced further, we'd have to spend even more on defence, not less.

    And the US doesn't have Greenland de facto or de jure - it is an independent kingdom under the King of Denmark de jure, and Denmark's de facto. If the Greenlanders or the Danes wanted the American base gone, the Americans would have to leave. But they don't, so it's a pointless hypothetical...

    I'm not sure that's true, and no one (with the possible exception of the Trump administration) wants to put that to the test, as finding out might be very costly.

    The longstanding attitude of the US towards Greenland sovereignty is illustrated by the fact that they planned to build a massive ICBM complex there, back in the late 50s, without telling anyone (Project Iceworm).

    They built a nuclear reactor below the ice, but then discovered ice instability made the whole plan impractical.

    It didn't become public until the 90s.

  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,051

    IanB2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    "Creepy" Yeah. That's the word.

    It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe but won't say one word in defence of an ally who is having their territorial integrity credibly threatened.

    I expect the US will get Greenland sooner or later. They already have it de facto because if Denmark told the US to clear out of Moonbase Alpha they wouldn't leave. Then what?
    I think you're wrong; we'll see.

    And no one is going to tell them to leave; they have a treaty right to the base - and several more, if they want
    That’s what I don’t understand

    Why not reopen 3-4 other bases there and call it a win?
    All Trump remembers from school history lessons is the names of the presidents who added territory to the early days of the US, and he wants to be similarly remembered. That’s really all there is to it.
    Puerto Rico is there, all he has to do is ask.
    Somebody mentioned McKinley and what happened to him upthread.

    Worryingly, McKinley was succeeded upon his assassination by Theodore Roosevelt, who was essentially an empire builder.

    I can see the parallels. Although I can't imagine Vance being so blasé about being shot before a major speech.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,155
    Greenland: "Shipping lanes, energy, fisheries ...."

    https://youtu.be/1spzFgcvu-w?t=284
  • No_Offence_AlanNo_Offence_Alan Posts: 4,911

    glw said:

    Ah I see Musk has just sold Twitter to himself.

    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1905731750275510312

    @xAI has acquired @X in an all-stock transaction. The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt).
    "X is the digital town square where more than 600M active users go to find the real-time source of ground truth"

    Just LOL
    "Ground" as in "been through a grinder so only little grains remain"?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,744
    MattW said:

    rcs1000 said:

    JD Vance:

    "If an enemy fired a missile on the U.S., it would be the American soldiers at the Greenland base who would alert their countrymen".

    Really?

    Thule (now called Pituffik) is one of the places (others in Canada, Norway I think) which has radar looking for incoming Soviet missiles.

    So Vance is correct on this (particular) point.
    If he is so worried about Russian missiles why is Vance so pro-Putin?
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 30,428
    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    JD Vance: “The president said we have to have Greenland…We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.”
    https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1905692360052539710

    Creepy.
    Especially as he’s addressing the military.

    "Creepy" Yeah. That's the word.

    It's telling how the UK government will cut benefits and social spending in order to prolong a stalemated war Eastern Europe but won't say one word in defence of an ally who is having their territorial integrity credibly threatened.

    I expect the US will get Greenland sooner or later. They already have it de facto because if Denmark told the US to clear out of Moonbase Alpha they wouldn't leave. Then what?
    What's interesting about the statement is that Vance is dropping Trump in it there. He's able to turn a phrase, so he could easily have said "The President has stessed that Greenland is of vital strategic importance to the US" which wraps the whole thing in a mantle of statesmanship, but he's basically said that Trump is a nutter. Perhaps tired of batting for Trump all the time, but perhaps starting planning to get rid?
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