A Western intelligence official told me recently that the Russians cannot believe how fast and furiously the U.S. has pivoted toward Moscow—and that this has led to a certain degree of conspiracism and paranoia among some factions of the Russian elite, who sniff a trap. It would be grimly hilarious if Trump were also incompetent in his pursuit of rapprochement with Putin. https://x.com/michaeldweiss/status/1912294296293671357
‘Diplomats in Washington also report that some Trump aides say privately that they are “fed up” with Europe’s effort to strengthen Ukraine. As always with such a chaotic administration, it is hard to distinguish the true signal from the noise.’ https://x.com/shashj/status/1912237158624117210
It's one thing to say that the US no longer has responsibility for Europe's security. Quite another for the US to be telling Europe to surrender.
That's how easy it was to get Covid small business loans.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg7pyg57qko A man who defrauded a council out of £710,000 by posing as the manager of 32 branches of Greggs has been jailed for four years. Aftab Baig, 47, of Paisley Road West, Glasgow, made fraudulent small business grant claims from Leeds City Council during the Covid pandemic in May 2020. Baig, who had no links to Greggs, had claimed he was paid for the use of his bank account, but was found guilty in February of three counts of fraud...
Farage broadcast: "Let's take over some of these councils and we will show you what we can do."
We'll know by next GE whether Reform can run a council let alone a country.
It's going to be fun watching them completely and utterly fail.
* that's not just because I think Reform is crap, it's because I think running any council given the current financial options and constraints is utterly impossible even someone who made 100% perfect decisions would have difficulty succeeding.
The smartest thing any council can do is to encourage old people to leave. If you can get the oldies out, with all the social care costs, you *might* be able to balance the books.
In the US, towns (of both political persuasions) have paid for buses and shipped the homeless (and illegal immigrants) across state lines.
Maybe it's time for British councils to do the same with the elderly.
Substitute race, etc. for old and see where it gets you!
So 4chan got taken down yesterday, and all poster's IP addresses leaked. Allegedly the servers were running decade-old software without patches; which is both hilarious and slightly ironic.
Not a great loss to the Internet, but the users will just pop up elsewhere.
Abrego Garcia's wife: God hasn't forgotten about you.
Made me think of The Count of Monte Cristo - another poor soul sent to a hell hole prison on the orders of corrupt officials who were begged to release him but couldn’t as it would expose their own sins.
Let us hope Abrego Garcia exacts the same levels of revenge on his tormentors as Edmond Dantes did.
Maybe Harvard and peers could be offered some of our financially troubled universities on long term leases to act as overseas campuses and takeover the facilities and get Uk investment and partnerships for medical and other research here.
Knew a Hematologist who did a residency under the Harvard auspices. Came back to the UK so the research benefit is now here. Agree that an open door policy for US based researchers would be an excellent opportunity.
At the other end of the scale, family in Oz work at one of the Universities there that benefit from an influx of Chinese students. Seems Chinese student need to apply to their government for permission to attend an overseas university. That permission is now becoming more difficult, so possibly fewer Chinese in the US and an opportunity for profligate UK Vice Chancellors to mitigate some of the damage their 'management' has done to UK research by getting Chinese here.
Farage broadcast: "Let's take over some of these councils and we will show you what we can do."
We'll know by next GE whether Reform can run a council let alone a country.
It's going to be fun watching them completely and utterly fail.
* that's not just because I think Reform is crap, it's because I think running any council given the current financial options and constraints is utterly impossible even someone who made 100% perfect decisions would have difficulty succeeding.
The smartest thing any council can do is to encourage old people to leave. If you can get the oldies out, with all the social care costs, you *might* be able to balance the books.
In the US, towns (of both political persuasions) have paid for buses and shipped the homeless (and illegal immigrants) across state lines.
Maybe it's time for British councils to do the same with the elderly.
Substitute race, etc. for old and see where it gets you!
Less media fuss than if you shipped out old people I expect.
Knew a Hematologist who did a residency under the Harvard auspices. Came back to the UK so the research benefit is now here. Agree that an open door policy for US based researchers would be an excellent opportunity.
At the other end of the scale, family in Oz work at one of the Universities there that benefit from an influx of Chinese students. Seems Chinese student need to apply to their government for permission to attend an overseas university. That permission is now becoming more difficult, so possibly fewer Chinese in the US and an opportunity for profligate UK Vice Chancellors to mitigate some of the damage their 'management' has done to UK research by getting Chinese here.
Early on in his career, Ben Rich (later director of Lockheed Skunkworks) was sent by Lockheed to attend Harvard Business School. When he returned, the great Kelly Johnson asked him how he had found it.
Rich wrote down an equation: 2/3 of HBS = BS.
That anecdote always sticks in my mind when people mention Harvard...
Knew a Hematologist who did a residency under the Harvard auspices. Came back to the UK so the research benefit is now here. Agree that an open door policy for US based researchers would be an excellent opportunity.
At the other end of the scale, family in Oz work at one of the Universities there that benefit from an influx of Chinese students. Seems Chinese student need to apply to their government for permission to attend an overseas university. That permission is now becoming more difficult, so possibly fewer Chinese in the US and an opportunity for profligate UK Vice Chancellors to mitigate some of the damage their 'management' has done to UK research by getting Chinese here.
Much harder for those Chinese students to get visas now. It's a major part in the universities financial crisis.
Knew a Hematologist who did a residency under the Harvard auspices. Came back to the UK so the research benefit is now here. Agree that an open door policy for US based researchers would be an excellent opportunity.
At the other end of the scale, family in Oz work at one of the Universities there that benefit from an influx of Chinese students. Seems Chinese student need to apply to their government for permission to attend an overseas university. That permission is now becoming more difficult, so possibly fewer Chinese in the US and an opportunity for profligate UK Vice Chancellors to mitigate some of the damage their 'management' has done to UK research by getting Chinese here.
Early on in his career, Ben Rich (later director of Lockheed Skunkworks) was sent by Lockheed to attend Harvard Business School. When he returned, the great Kelly Johnson asked him how he had found it.
Rich wrote down an equation: 2/3 of HBS = BS.
That anecdote always sticks in my mind when people mention Harvard...
Mrs PtP went there.
She burnt my favorite kitchen pan last nite. Hopeless.
Knew a Hematologist who did a residency under the Harvard auspices. Came back to the UK so the research benefit is now here. Agree that an open door policy for US based researchers would be an excellent opportunity.
At the other end of the scale, family in Oz work at one of the Universities there that benefit from an influx of Chinese students. Seems Chinese student need to apply to their government for permission to attend an overseas university. That permission is now becoming more difficult, so possibly fewer Chinese in the US and an opportunity for profligate UK Vice Chancellors to mitigate some of the damage their 'management' has done to UK research by getting Chinese here.
Early on in his career, Ben Rich (later director of Lockheed Skunkworks) was sent by Lockheed to attend Harvard Business School. When he returned, the great Kelly Johnson asked him how he had found it.
Rich wrote down an equation: 2/3 of HBS = BS.
That anecdote always sticks in my mind when people mention Harvard...
Not a Havard specific thing. Most business degrees comprise a good deal of BS. You do an MBA to reset your career and network, not to contribute to the sum of human knowledge.
‘Diplomats in Washington also report that some Trump aides say privately that they are “fed up” with Europe’s effort to strengthen Ukraine. As always with such a chaotic administration, it is hard to distinguish the true signal from the noise.’ https://x.com/shashj/status/1912237158624117210
It's one thing to say that the US no longer has responsibility for Europe's security. Quite another for the US to be telling Europe to surrender.
Many Europeans have been saying the same thing for years, with a good deal less excuse, e.g. Meloni in 2023 told a Russian prank caller posing as an African leader that Europeans were fed up with Ukraine.
And she's often thought of as one of the more pro-Ukraine leaders in Europe.
We don't need to look as far as Washington to find traitors to the free world - Europe is full of them. Meloni, Scholz, Macron before he lost his majority and decided to pose as a champion of freedom, Orban, Fiso etc. etc.
Knew a Hematologist who did a residency under the Harvard auspices. Came back to the UK so the research benefit is now here. Agree that an open door policy for US based researchers would be an excellent opportunity.
At the other end of the scale, family in Oz work at one of the Universities there that benefit from an influx of Chinese students. Seems Chinese student need to apply to their government for permission to attend an overseas university. That permission is now becoming more difficult, so possibly fewer Chinese in the US and an opportunity for profligate UK Vice Chancellors to mitigate some of the damage their 'management' has done to UK research by getting Chinese here.
Early on in his career, Ben Rich (later director of Lockheed Skunkworks) was sent by Lockheed to attend Harvard Business School. When he returned, the great Kelly Johnson asked him how he had found it.
Rich wrote down an equation: 2/3 of HBS = BS.
That anecdote always sticks in my mind when people mention Harvard...
Not a Havard specific thing. Most business degrees comprise a good deal of BS. You do an MBA to reset your career and network, not to contribute to the sum of human knowledge.
I used to really annoy my colleagues in the Economics faculty by saying Business Studies was just BS.
Durham should have won that easily, they'll be relegated. The Div 1 favourites are stumbling, Essex should/could have won both their games but failed to clear up Surrey and Notts in 2nd innings, their OS bat Elgar is on paternity leave but more damaging is that their OS bowler diverted to IPL. Somerset have a draw and a loss and Surrey 2 draws. Sadly for fans of county cricket, the latter looks unlikely to be relegated to Div 2 though if Essex had bowled better they'd be closer.
Wealthier households could be made to shoulder higher costs for running and upgrading the UK’s network of energy cables and pipes to help low-income bill payers under new plans to be considered this summer.
The proposals could mean that high-income households will pay more via the standing charge on their energy bills, while those who are not in work or are on low pay are charged a discounted rate.
She's crackers isn't she. Still can't quite believe she made it to the top (however briefly).
The linked article mentions that "Truss made the announcement at a cryptocurrency event in Bedford at the weekend, where a hall of attendees had paid between £250 and £1,000 to watch her speak."
I would argue that she isn't crackers. She's a smart businesswoman who has found a very lucrative market niche & she's just telling her fans stuff that they want to hear, and for which they're willing to pay her large sums of money.
The Ukrainians ar strongly targetting Russian artillery. Since the start of the year, they claimed to have hit nearly 5,000 pieces. Their longer range drones have brought them into range from previous places of safety well behind the lines.
Also worth noting that some of the attacks on the upper floors of swanky Moscow tower blocks are because that is where Russian FPV drone operators have been based.
Shocking. When is this useless government going to do something about it.
Is it all possible as I keep saying that the criticism of their policies is a touch overblown?
Inflation down to 2.6% and wages rising at 5.5% is surely good for the average Joe or Jane.
The line in the graph above on health is quite positive too. In recent years concern about it spikes in January we're the norm, while this year the trend is down.
Fucking hell. Birmingham expect to be back to one bin collection a week from the weekend. Our lot aren’t on strike and we don’t even get that…
Until very recently, when wheelie bins became compulsory rather than merely widespread, Birmingham binmen would open your side gate, walk around the back of the house, pick the black bags out of the old aluminum bins and swing them over their shoulder, bolting the side gate on the way back to the lorry. So I have a soft spot for them, inefficient though it was.
If I was PM, or perhaps ‘world king’, I would insist everyone had the same bin collection regime, and everyone had equal access to GPs. Sod immigration, it’s the little things that matter.
Sounds a bit Communist.
Really? Why should Birmingham residents have their bin emptied once a week when mine is once a fortnight? And why should my dad get far better GP access because he lives in a village than I do in a small town?
The first, because they are local services and it is a matter for the local people and the local Government to decide how they organise their services, not for Turbotubs The Great Dictator.
The seconde, GPs are small businesses, and they are different. I'm not sure how you would deliver any complete standardisation - this is not East Germany.
She's crackers isn't she. Still can't quite believe she made it to the top (however briefly).
The linked article mentions that "Truss made the announcement at a cryptocurrency event in Bedford at the weekend, where a hall of attendees had paid between £250 and £1,000 to watch her speak."
I would argue that she isn't crackers. She's a smart businesswoman who has found a very lucrative market niche & she's just telling her fans stuff that they want to hear, and for which they're willing to pay her large sums of money.
Durham should have won that easily, they'll be relegated. The Div 1 favourites are stumbling, Essex should/could have won both their games but failed to clear up Surrey and Notts in 2nd innings, their OS bat Elgar is on paternity leave but more damaging is that their OS bowler diverted to IPL. Somerset have a draw and a loss and Surrey 2 draws. Sadly for fans of county cricket, the latter looks unlikely to be relegated to Div 2 though if Essex had bowled better they'd be closer.
The counties' grassroots live streaming of the games and highlights summaries has escaped ECB sabotage so far. There's the opportunity for a MOTD style summary show that could revive interest in county cricket.
She's crackers isn't she. Still can't quite believe she made it to the top (however briefly).
The linked article mentions that "Truss made the announcement at a cryptocurrency event in Bedford at the weekend, where a hall of attendees had paid between £250 and £1,000 to watch her speak."
I would argue that she isn't crackers. She's a smart businesswoman who has found a very lucrative market niche & she's just telling her fans stuff that they want to hear, and for which they're willing to pay her large sums of money.
Isn't it possible she's both greedy and deranged?
Speaking at a crypto event?
Pretty much diagnostic of being greedy and deranged, albeit not as deranged as the people paying to hear her speak.
Knew a Hematologist who did a residency under the Harvard auspices. Came back to the UK so the research benefit is now here. Agree that an open door policy for US based researchers would be an excellent opportunity.
At the other end of the scale, family in Oz work at one of the Universities there that benefit from an influx of Chinese students. Seems Chinese student need to apply to their government for permission to attend an overseas university. That permission is now becoming more difficult, so possibly fewer Chinese in the US and an opportunity for profligate UK Vice Chancellors to mitigate some of the damage their 'management' has done to UK research by getting Chinese here.
Early on in his career, Ben Rich (later director of Lockheed Skunkworks) was sent by Lockheed to attend Harvard Business School. When he returned, the great Kelly Johnson asked him how he had found it.
Rich wrote down an equation: 2/3 of HBS = BS.
That anecdote always sticks in my mind when people mention Harvard...
Mrs PtP went there.
She burnt my favorite kitchen pan last nite. Hopeless.
Put in a claim for a new one. Harvard is rich enough to pay.
(And maybe also a claim for polluting your language. Nite?)
She's crackers isn't she. Still can't quite believe she made it to the top (however briefly).
The linked article mentions that "Truss made the announcement at a cryptocurrency event in Bedford at the weekend, where a hall of attendees had paid between £250 and £1,000 to watch her speak."
I would argue that she isn't crackers. She's a smart businesswoman who has found a very lucrative market niche & she's just telling her fans stuff that they want to hear, and for which they're willing to pay her large sums of money.
Shocking. When is this useless government going to do something about it.
Is it all possible as I keep saying that the criticism of their policies is a touch overblown?
Which Government policies do you credit with bringing down inflation?
If Reeves gets attacked whenever the economic news is bad, she surely has to be credited whenever it is good. Presumably you’ll be using this same argument when it goes up in April?
My point simply is that people keep saying how terrible this government is and how it’s destroying the economy but the evidence on that is pretty mixed at worst.
Wealthier households could be made to shoulder higher costs for running and upgrading the UK’s network of energy cables and pipes to help low-income bill payers under new plans to be considered this summer.
The proposals could mean that high-income households will pay more via the standing charge on their energy bills, while those who are not in work or are on low pay are charged a discounted rate.
Lol.
A bad idea but it would be a slight reversal of current situation, currently the cost of the failed companies that offered too low tariffs to low risk (wealthy) households is via a flat rate levy on standing charges.
‘Diplomats in Washington also report that some Trump aides say privately that they are “fed up” with Europe’s effort to strengthen Ukraine. As always with such a chaotic administration, it is hard to distinguish the true signal from the noise.’ https://x.com/shashj/status/1912237158624117210
It's one thing to say that the US no longer has responsibility for Europe's security. Quite another for the US to be telling Europe to surrender.
I've argued before that the thing Europe needs to do with Ukraine is write the agenda sufficiently strongly that the USA is functionally irrelevant. So all the whinings, stupidities, obsessions, plots, attempts to extort, and conspiracy theories have no purchase.
That still seems to me to be the need, however long it takes. Very difficult, but necessary for the future of Europe.
They want to be isolationists; they need to be isolated.
Shocking. When is this useless government going to do something about it.
Is it all possible as I keep saying that the criticism of their policies is a touch overblown?
Which Government policies do you credit with bringing down inflation?
If Reeves gets attacked whenever the economic news is bad, she surely has to be credited whenever it is good. Presumably you’ll be using this same argument when it goes up in April?
My point simply is that people keep saying how terrible this government is and how it’s destroying the economy but the evidence on that is pretty mixed at worst.
That’s my five post limit hit.
Reeves is being attacked for the negative outcomes of her budget. If you can't name a single policy initiative that Labour have put in place that is anti-inflationary, I'm not sure we can use this to declare criticism of their policies to be overblown.
I am not biased in this - I was equally critical of Rishi Sunak claiming credit for inflation falling during his tenure.
Shocking. When is this useless government going to do something about it.
Is it all possible as I keep saying that the criticism of their policies is a touch overblown?
Which Government policies do you credit with bringing down inflation?
If Reeves gets attacked whenever the economic news is bad, she surely has to be credited whenever it is good. Presumably you’ll be using this same argument when it goes up in April?
My point simply is that people keep saying how terrible this government is and how it’s destroying the economy but the evidence on that is pretty mixed at worst.
That’s my five post limit hit.
Reeves is being attacked for the negative outcomes of her budget. If you can't name a single policy initiative that Labour have put in place that is anti-inflationary, I'm not sure we can use this to declare criticism of their policies to be overblown.
I am not biased in this - I was equally critical of Rishi Sunak claiming credit for inflation falling during his tenure.
Well - continuing to spend public money keeping fuel prices down "temporarily" is one obvious one. Costing £2.5bn approx in the current year to provide an enhanced "temporary" subsidy for iirc "the energy crisis".
Reduced interest rates slowly is another.
And year on year 10% reduction in the energy price cap Q1 2024 to Q1 2025. Though that is not itself a specific policy.
The other day we were debating about whether access is necessary to improve our transport systems.
Here's a video from Type Ashton, a youtuber from the USA now living in Germany, returning home to walk her 1980s route to school in small-town Illinois, and to compare what her children do in Deutschland:
Comments
https://x.com/michaeldweiss/status/1912294296293671357
https://x.com/shashj/status/1912237158624117210
It's one thing to say that the US no longer has responsibility for Europe's security. Quite another for the US to be telling Europe to surrender.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vIF-jSss8A
https://x.com/johnjhorton/status/1912106709708849583
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg7pyg57qko
A man who defrauded a council out of £710,000 by posing as the manager of 32 branches of Greggs has been jailed for four years.
Aftab Baig, 47, of Paisley Road West, Glasgow, made fraudulent small business grant claims from Leeds City Council during the Covid pandemic in May 2020.
Baig, who had no links to Greggs, had claimed he was paid for the use of his bank account, but was found guilty in February of three counts of fraud...
Not a great loss to the Internet, but the users will just pop up elsewhere.
Let us hope Abrego Garcia exacts the same levels of revenge on his tormentors as Edmond Dantes did.
At the other end of the scale, family in Oz work at one of the Universities there that benefit from an influx of Chinese students. Seems Chinese student need to apply to their government for permission to attend an overseas university. That permission is now becoming more difficult, so possibly fewer Chinese in the US and an opportunity for profligate UK Vice Chancellors to mitigate some of the damage their 'management' has done to UK research by getting Chinese here.
Rich wrote down an equation: 2/3 of HBS = BS.
That anecdote always sticks in my mind when people mention Harvard...
She's crackers isn't she. Still can't quite believe she made it to the top (however briefly).
She burnt my favorite kitchen pan last nite. Hopeless.
https://www.voxnews.al/english/kosovabota/jemi-lodhur-me-ukrainen-meloni-bie-pre-e-telefonates-kurth-europa-na--i51547
And she's often thought of as one of the more pro-Ukraine leaders in Europe.
We don't need to look as far as Washington to find traitors to the free world - Europe is full of them. Meloni, Scholz, Macron before he lost his majority and decided to pose as a champion of freedom, Orban, Fiso etc. etc.
The Div 1 favourites are stumbling, Essex should/could have won both their games but failed to clear up Surrey and Notts in 2nd innings, their OS bat Elgar is on paternity leave but more damaging is that their OS bowler diverted to IPL.
Somerset have a draw and a loss and Surrey 2 draws. Sadly for fans of county cricket, the latter looks unlikely to be relegated to Div 2 though if Essex had bowled better they'd be closer.
I would argue that she isn't crackers. She's a smart businesswoman who has found a very lucrative market niche & she's just telling her fans stuff that they want to hear, and for which they're willing to pay her large sums of money.
Also worth noting that some of the attacks on the upper floors of swanky Moscow tower blocks are because that is where Russian FPV drone operators have been based.
The line in the graph above on health is quite positive too. In recent years concern about it spikes in January we're the norm, while this year the trend is down.
The seconde, GPs are small businesses, and they are different. I'm not sure how you would deliver any complete standardisation - this is not East Germany.
Pretty much diagnostic of being greedy and deranged, albeit not as deranged as the people paying to hear her speak.
(And maybe also a claim for polluting your language. Nite?)
NEW THREAD
My point simply is that people keep saying how terrible this government is and how it’s destroying the economy but the evidence on that is pretty mixed at worst.
That’s my five post limit hit.
That still seems to me to be the need, however long it takes. Very difficult, but necessary for the future of Europe.
They want to be isolationists; they need to be isolated.
I am not biased in this - I was equally critical of Rishi Sunak claiming credit for inflation falling during his tenure.
Reduced interest rates slowly is another.
And year on year 10% reduction in the energy price cap Q1 2024 to Q1 2025. Though that is not itself a specific policy.
Here's a video from Type Ashton, a youtuber from the USA now living in Germany, returning home to walk her 1980s route to school in small-town Illinois, and to compare what her children do in Deutschland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkhxWteFcQ4