Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They can say what they like, but nobody believes them. All the market indicators, all business activity data, all the travel data, and all the diplomatic and trade moves excluding America are pointing in a different direction*. The American era of dominance is ending much faster than anybody thought was possible. The world will be a very different place by the time the 2030s begin.
* It also needs to be remembered that many of these are lagging indicators, if things look poor now they will likely look at lot worse as time moves on.
There was a good analogy I heard earlier on the radio, that the US is effectively applying what would normally be consideder economic sanctions, but to itself.
Is Labour’s breakfast club rollout a poorly disguised bribe?
At first glance, it appears to be a much-needed step towards universal social provision, writes John Rentoul. In reality, it is a way of currying favour among voters – using taxpayers’ money
Possibly, but actually it's still a good idea. Getting a decent breakfast down them before they start school certainly will make a difference to their concentration levels.
At what age do we have to start paying for the kids school meals?
Quite. Whatever are parents for?
There is no point in bleating 'why don't parents do their job and nurture and feed their kids' because it is evident that there will always be some who don't for a variety of reasons including in the modern age being smashed off their faces on drugs.
Why not try and break that cycle by giving their kids the best start to the day possible so they can actually learn rather than be literally hungry all morning for a relatively small sum?
Make your mind up - is it "there will always be some" or is it "in the modern age"? Why not just nationalise children?
“In the modern age being smashed off their faces on drugs” was one of a number of situations that was included in the idea that there are a variety of reasons so the statement was not confused.
I thought that there was the concept of “it takes a village to raise a child” and so there has always been an understanding that parents are not the only key parties in the successful raising of children and so handing children over to schools for a bit more time and feeding the buggers isn’t massively problematic.
Thanks to @KemiBadenoch whose brilliant speech just now was the actual truth, not a new rewritten convenient version if it. She has been one of the most consistent supporters of feminists and women's sex-based rights, unlike any of those opposite now pretending to be.
All of us (most of us) believe it should be allowed somewhere between 1 day and nine months.
Let's imagine that Starmer thinks it should be 28 weeks which is the legal position. The law then changes to allow it at 26 weeks. His position on trans women is analogous to him then announcing that he thinks it should be 26 weeks.
Like abortion, one's position on trans women is primarily a moral one.
I would have thought that one's position on trans women would primarily be a sexual one.
Such a great actor: he was absolutely brilliant in the latest White Lotus too.
Have you seen the SNL spoof?
Yes: it was moderately amusing
An SNL first.
I have never got SNL and not just recent past with the polarisation / boring predictable orange man bad dominating sketches.
I remember first seeing it 25+ years ago and the Americans I were staying with it was "unmissable" tv. It seems absolute crap then.
They are launching SNL UK shortly. Inevitably it will be as funny and bang up to date as HIGNFY. The internet has already done all the jokes, better, by the time the programmes are written and aired.
So the WH press sec starts the daily pool by introducing some "new media seat" kids and podcasters who will ask some questions and kinda broaden the narrative etc etc.
First question seems to be a long conspiracy rant about old media and MI13 gang members.
Yes, they had to stack the room with people who would tee up Nazi Barbie's stream of bullshit
Today's latest
Hesgeth leaking warplans on Signal is not a breach of national Security
People leaking that Hesgeth leaked warplans on Signal is a breach of National Security...
Numerous posts in last few days claiming a big upsurge in the interest in religion in this country.
The Pope dies. It's hard to think of a bigger event in the world of religion.
The BBC alters its schedules to put a special programme on BBC1 (the most watched TV channel in the UK overall) right in the middle of prime-time at 9pm last night.
The ratings for the 9pm hour:
BBC ONE: Pope Francis: The People's Pope ≈ 800k (6.3%) BBC TWO: Pilgrimage: The Road Through The Alps ≈ 830k (6.5%) ITV1: Celebrity Big Brother ≈ 1.5m (12.2%) C4: 999: The Critical List ≈ 950k (7.5%) 5: The Feud ≈ 1.4m (10.9%)
It is almost unheard of for BBC1 to rate lower than all the other four main channels.
Totally disagree. I'm quite strongly religious (RC), but it didn't cross my mind to watch yet another TV programme about the life of Francis. If I'd wanted to watch broadcast TV last night (and I had better things to do) it'd have been the Pilgrimage film. And I doubt I'll watch Francis' funeral or his successor's inauguration. Incidentally: the latest research shows that the audience for the BBC1 Francis film was lower than the number of British Catholics going to Mass each Sunday - and that number's lower than the number of Anglicans going to church each Sunday. Growing interest in religion isn't measured by TV audiences.
Such a great actor: he was absolutely brilliant in the latest White Lotus too.
Have you seen the SNL spoof?
Yes: it was moderately amusing
An SNL first.
I have never got SNL and not just recent past with the polarisation / boring predictable orange man bad dominating sketches.
I remember first seeing it 25+ years ago and the Americans I were staying with it was "unmissable" tv. It seems absolute crap then.
They are launching SNL UK shortly. Inevitably it will be as funny and bang up to date as HIGNFY. The internet has already done all the jokes, better, by the time the programmes are written and aired.
They have tried these programmes before and they have always flopped. I guess the closest thing we have had that was popular at one point was Spitting Image and Rory Bremner (although totally focused upon politics), but every reboot and alternative has again flopped in recent years.
Even weekly topically stand up shows where comics do 5 mins each on a story of the week haven't worked.
So the WH press sec starts the daily pool by introducing some "new media seat" kids and podcasters who will ask some questions and kinda broaden the narrative etc etc.
First question seems to be a long conspiracy rant about old media and MI13 gang members.
Yes, they had to stack the room with people who would tee up Nazi Barbie's stream of bullshit
Today's latest
Hesgeth leaking warplans on Signal is not a breach of national Security
People leaking that Hesgeth leaked warplans on Signal is a breach of National Security...
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
Mrs J works extensively with colleagues from Austin. Apparently no-one from the UK is going over there any more; they are all coming over here. It'll be interesting to see how long that continues. Mrs J is *not* keen to go over...
Why? Do they lock women up for being married to men with heretical views on Deltics?
If she did go over, I bet she'd use her UK and not her Turkish passport...
(She had a great incident when arriving in the US years ago. The woman at passport control saw she worked for a company with 'silicon' in its name. She frowned, and asked "What does your company do?"
"We design computer chips," Mrs J replied.
"Ah, chips, not tits," the officer replied. She had confused silicon and silicone... )
The thing I find bemusing about the hasty row backs on the trans issue is just quite how spineless some of these figures are. I would count Starmer in that now.
They weren’t willing to pin their colours to the mast until such time as they had a court do the work for them. Now they’ve got the political cover, they’ll come down on one side of the argument. In the meantime lots of decisions have been made, rightly or wrongly, about people’s livelihoods and lifestyles with nary a whisper.
Tony Benn:
I have divided politicians into two categories: the Signposts and the Weathercocks. The Signpost says: 'This is the way we should go.' And you don't have to follow them but if you come back in ten years time the Signpost is still there.
The Weathercock hasn’t got an opinion until they've looked at the polls, talked to the focus groups, discussed it with the spin doctors. And I've no time for Weathercocks, I'm a Signpost man. And in fairness, although I disagreed with everything she did, Mrs Thatcher was a Signpost. She said what she meant. Meant what she said. Did what she said she’d do if you voted for her. So everybody who voted for her shared responsibility for what happened. And I think that we do need a few more Signposts and few fewer Weathercocks
He was wrong too. Stubborn politicians who refuse to accept the world as it is become anachronistic. Benn was one of them. Corbyn another.
...and yet his five questions - “What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you” - survived his death and influenced Leavers during the Brexit debate, including Michael Gove.
Good questions, to be sure, and having some central vision is important for politicians to not turn into lukewarm automatons, but from everything those who remember those times says about him, good and bad, I cannot but imagine he would probably be adjudged to be too rigid thesedays.
So the WH press sec starts the daily pool by introducing some "new media seat" kids and podcasters who will ask some questions and kinda broaden the narrative etc etc.
First question seems to be a long conspiracy rant about old media and MI13 gang members.
Yes, they had to stack the room with people who would tee up Nazi Barbie's stream of bullshit
Today's latest
Hesgeth leaking warplans on Signal is not a breach of national Security
People leaking that Hesgeth leaked warplans on Signal is a breach of National Security...
How does her brain not explode?
I don't care how devoted someone is to a political cause, WH Press Secretary is a terrible, soul destroying job, and that was the case long before she came on the scene.
Numerous posts in last few days claiming a big upsurge in the interest in religion in this country.
The Pope dies. It's hard to think of a bigger event in the world of religion.
The BBC alters its schedules to put a special programme on BBC1 (the most watched TV channel in the UK overall) right in the middle of prime-time at 9pm last night.
The ratings for the 9pm hour:
BBC ONE: Pope Francis: The People's Pope ≈ 800k (6.3%) BBC TWO: Pilgrimage: The Road Through The Alps ≈ 830k (6.5%) ITV1: Celebrity Big Brother ≈ 1.5m (12.2%) C4: 999: The Critical List ≈ 950k (7.5%) 5: The Feud ≈ 1.4m (10.9%)
It is almost unheard of for BBC1 to rate lower than all the other four main channels.
I hardly ever watch main channel, or any other, television, so I am not a candidate for any of these programmes. Neither, judging from the figures, is nearly everyone else.
A second point, if you are a Pope fan you probably know all you want to know about his life, so a long special is not interesting. If you are a member of the group forming most news followers, your thoughts immediately turn (see PB for illustration) on what it means for the future - who is next, what's the politics, what's the odds, who is interesting, what's the gossip, what can go wrong, did JD Vance kill the pope, any good conspiracy theories etc. BBC is not good at this.
Don't tell anyone but most popes are quite boring. JPII was the great exception in our times. Gregory VII and Gregory the Great are two others worth a TV prog.
So the WH press sec starts the daily pool by introducing some "new media seat" kids and podcasters who will ask some questions and kinda broaden the narrative etc etc.
First question seems to be a long conspiracy rant about old media and MI13 gang members.
Yes, they had to stack the room with people who would tee up Nazi Barbie's stream of bullshit
Today's latest
Hesgeth leaking warplans on Signal is not a breach of national Security
People leaking that Hesgeth leaked warplans on Signal is a breach of National Security...
How does her brain not explode?
If the Russians and Chinese are not targetting the phones of the social circles of the current US administration I would be completely astonished. There is top notch intelligence available for basically nothing with no meaningful safeguards to prevent it being taken.
@RosieDuffield1 Thanks to @KemiBadenoch whose brilliant speech just now was the actual truth, not a new rewritten convenient version if it. She has been one of the most consistent supporters of feminists and women's sex-based rights, unlike any of those opposite now pretending to be.
Rosie Duffield was an opportunist long before this whole issue. It is quite obvious she was in the wrong party.
Other than on this particular issue, is she out of step with mainstream Labour opinion?
She is far from along where on this one specific issue is very important to them but for pretty much everything else they are left leaning. There is a demographic of women, overwhelmingly well educated, middle class, 40+ e.g JK, Mumsnet founders, Mrs U friends, on every other issue they are very liberal and in the past voting decision was to go Labour, Lib Dem or Green.
So the WH press sec starts the daily pool by introducing some "new media seat" kids and podcasters who will ask some questions and kinda broaden the narrative etc etc.
First question seems to be a long conspiracy rant about old media and MI13 gang members.
Yes, they had to stack the room with people who would tee up Nazi Barbie's stream of bullshit
Today's latest
Hesgeth leaking warplans on Signal is not a breach of national Security
People leaking that Hesgeth leaked warplans on Signal is a breach of National Security...
Is Labour’s breakfast club rollout a poorly disguised bribe?
At first glance, it appears to be a much-needed step towards universal social provision, writes John Rentoul. In reality, it is a way of currying favour among voters – using taxpayers’ money
Possibly, but actually it's still a good idea. Getting a decent breakfast down them before they start school certainly will make a difference to their concentration levels.
At what age do we have to start paying for the kids school meals?
Is Labour’s breakfast club rollout a poorly disguised bribe?
At first glance, it appears to be a much-needed step towards universal social provision, writes John Rentoul. In reality, it is a way of currying favour among voters – using taxpayers’ money
Possibly, but actually it's still a good idea. Getting a decent breakfast down them before they start school certainly will make a difference to their concentration levels.
At what age do we have to start paying for the kids school meals?
Quite. Whatever are parents for?
Well, conception for a start.
Don't need to be - I'm sure there's a techbro company in California right now working on a dystopian project to remove humans entirely from the process on a mass scale, with embryos in pods to then be reared as children in iPods, hermetically sealed bubbled full of screens to educate them to adulthood.
So the WH press sec starts the daily pool by introducing some "new media seat" kids and podcasters who will ask some questions and kinda broaden the narrative etc etc.
First question seems to be a long conspiracy rant about old media and MI13 gang members.
Yes, they had to stack the room with people who would tee up Nazi Barbie's stream of bullshit
Today's latest
Hesgeth leaking warplans on Signal is not a breach of national Security
People leaking that Hesgeth leaked warplans on Signal is a breach of National Security...
How does her brain not explode?
If the Russians and Chinese are not targetting the phones of the social circles of the current US administration I would be completely astonished. There is top notch intelligence available for basically nothing with no meaningful safeguards to prevent it being taken.
I said this the other day, the liberal and casual use of WhatsApp on phones there were mixing government business and the personal in the UK really should not be allowed.
It has been shown that the tech exists to perform to deploy spyware via these methods. Government business phones should be locked down and used only for government business.
Numerous posts in last few days claiming a big upsurge in the interest in religion in this country.
The Pope dies. It's hard to think of a bigger event in the world of religion.
The BBC alters its schedules to put a special programme on BBC1 (the most watched TV channel in the UK overall) right in the middle of prime-time at 9pm last night.
The ratings for the 9pm hour:
BBC ONE: Pope Francis: The People's Pope ≈ 800k (6.3%) BBC TWO: Pilgrimage: The Road Through The Alps ≈ 830k (6.5%) ITV1: Celebrity Big Brother ≈ 1.5m (12.2%) C4: 999: The Critical List ≈ 950k (7.5%) 5: The Feud ≈ 1.4m (10.9%)
It is almost unheard of for BBC1 to rate lower than all the other four main channels.
Francis’ legacy is an interesting one. I should caveat this heavily by saying I am not a Catholic, although sometimes I find myself rather drawn to the sense of ritual and history behind it.
It seems to me that he never attained the rockstar status of JPII (perhaps no-one could given the general standing of the church nowadays) but for a period after his election he did genuinely generate a lot of fascination and interest. I think that waned very heavily over time. For those expecting him to be a sweeping reformer, I think he was less radical than they expected. And he was never greatly loved by the conservative wing. In the last few years it has felt like everyone has been looking to what came next for the church rather than to the remaining acts of Francis. He did lose a lot of vitality. And as a result I am not convinced he broke through as a figure of wider public interest.
The thing I find bemusing about the hasty row backs on the trans issue is just quite how spineless some of these figures are. I would count Starmer in that now.
They weren’t willing to pin their colours to the mast until such time as they had a court do the work for them. Now they’ve got the political cover, they’ll come down on one side of the argument. In the meantime lots of decisions have been made, rightly or wrongly, about people’s livelihoods and lifestyles with nary a whisper.
Tony Benn:
I have divided politicians into two categories: the Signposts and the Weathercocks. The Signpost says: 'This is the way we should go.' And you don't have to follow them but if you come back in ten years time the Signpost is still there.
The Weathercock hasn’t got an opinion until they've looked at the polls, talked to the focus groups, discussed it with the spin doctors. And I've no time for Weathercocks, I'm a Signpost man. And in fairness, although I disagreed with everything she did, Mrs Thatcher was a Signpost. She said what she meant. Meant what she said. Did what she said she’d do if you voted for her. So everybody who voted for her shared responsibility for what happened. And I think that we do need a few more Signposts and few fewer Weathercocks
He was wrong too. Stubborn politicians who refuse to accept the world as it is become anachronistic. Benn was one of them. Corbyn another.
He didn't say Signposts were more likely to be successful.
There were major changes under Thatcher.
Benn would have called Farage a Signpost too. For many years, back in the days before the word "Brexit" had been coined, wanting to leave the EU was viewed by most people as similar to having body odour - as going on about how great Enoch Powell was still is. Now an incarnation of UKIP has led the field in some polls for the next GE.
If Tony Benn had lived long enough to take part in the Brexit campaign, presumably on the Leave side, I wonder how it would have gone. There was, essentially, no serious left-wing voice for Brexit.
Lord Glasman's case left wing case for Brexit was quite compelling. There's a quote in it I really liked, so much so that I have forgotten it! But it was something along the lines of FOM being the best capitalist con trick on record
True, but Carnforth's point that the left abandoned ship over the EU/Brexit is right. The leftish case that the EU, by mixing together business and politics in a toxic way, had created an oligarch's paradise untroubled by democracy and adorned with a Potemkin parliament was strong.
And by making the parts inseparable - combining the stuff of trade associations with profound political projects like the Euro and FOM - they sought to make it impossible to break by a democratic process.
Life moves on of course and all politics is relative. The EU now looks an island of sanity surrounding by the growing fascism of the USA.
The use of Tasers in prisons will be trialled after guards were injured by the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, the justice secretary has said.
The Prison Officers' Association (POA) had called for guards to have access to electric stun guns in light of Hashem Abedi's use of makeshift weapons to attack staff at HMP Frankland, a high-security prison in County Durham.
The thing I find bemusing about the hasty row backs on the trans issue is just quite how spineless some of these figures are. I would count Starmer in that now.
They weren’t willing to pin their colours to the mast until such time as they had a court do the work for them. Now they’ve got the political cover, they’ll come down on one side of the argument. In the meantime lots of decisions have been made, rightly or wrongly, about people’s livelihoods and lifestyles with nary a whisper.
Tony Benn:
I have divided politicians into two categories: the Signposts and the Weathercocks. The Signpost says: 'This is the way we should go.' And you don't have to follow them but if you come back in ten years time the Signpost is still there.
The Weathercock hasn’t got an opinion until they've looked at the polls, talked to the focus groups, discussed it with the spin doctors. And I've no time for Weathercocks, I'm a Signpost man. And in fairness, although I disagreed with everything she did, Mrs Thatcher was a Signpost. She said what she meant. Meant what she said. Did what she said she’d do if you voted for her. So everybody who voted for her shared responsibility for what happened. And I think that we do need a few more Signposts and few fewer Weathercocks
He was wrong too. Stubborn politicians who refuse to accept the world as it is become anachronistic. Benn was one of them. Corbyn another.
He didn't say Signposts were more likely to be successful.
There were major changes under Thatcher.
Benn would have called Farage a Signpost too. For many years, back in the days before the word "Brexit" had been coined, wanting to leave the EU was viewed by most people as similar to having body odour - as going on about how great Enoch Powell was still is. Now an incarnation of UKIP has led the field in some polls for the next GE.
If Tony Benn had lived long enough to take part in the Brexit campaign, presumably on the Leave side, I wonder how it would have gone. There was, essentially, no serious left-wing voice for Brexit.
Lord Glasman's case left wing case for Brexit was quite compelling. There's a quote in it I really liked, so much so that I have forgotten it! But it was something along the lines of FOM being the best capitalist con trick on record
True, but Carnforth's point that the left abandoned ship over the EU/Brexit is right. The leftish case that the EU, by mixing together business and politics in a toxic way, had created an oligarch's paradise untroubled by democracy and adorned with a Potemkin parliament was strong.
And by making the parts inseparable - combining the stuff of trade associations with profound political projects like the Euro and FOM - they sought to make it impossible to break by a democratic process.
Life moves on of course and all politics is relative. The EU now looks an island of sanity surrounding by the growing fascism of the USA.
Yes, Corbyn was obviously a Leaver, as were may left wing politicians of the past. But he allowed Starmer to "take control" of the Labour response to the referendum, and Sir Keir tried every trick in the legal book to prevent the result being honoured, despite saying respecting the result was "a point of principle"
So the WH press sec starts the daily pool by introducing some "new media seat" kids and podcasters who will ask some questions and kinda broaden the narrative etc etc.
First question seems to be a long conspiracy rant about old media and MI13 gang members.
Yes, they had to stack the room with people who would tee up Nazi Barbie's stream of bullshit
Today's latest
Hesgeth leaking warplans on Signal is not a breach of national Security
People leaking that Hesgeth leaked warplans on Signal is a breach of National Security...
How does her brain not explode?
I don't care how devoted someone is to a political cause, WH Press Secretary is a terrible, soul destroying job, and that was the case long before she came on the scene.
The use of Tasers in prisons will be trialled after guards were injured by the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, the justice secretary has said.
The Prison Officers' Association (POA) had called for guards to have access to electric stun guns in light of Hashem Abedi's use of makeshift weapons to attack staff at HMP Frankland, a high-security prison in County Durham.
Is there not a danger of if prisoners get hold on them?
Better than thousands of american tv shows and movies, which I sincerely hope are not true to life, with police talking with suspects and public in a big open room with guns on their belts, which are then siezed and used.
I saw one cop show where they put their guns in coded lockers before entering their offices and nearly fell out of my chair in surprise.
The use of Tasers in prisons will be trialled after guards were injured by the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, the justice secretary has said.
The Prison Officers' Association (POA) had called for guards to have access to electric stun guns in light of Hashem Abedi's use of makeshift weapons to attack staff at HMP Frankland, a high-security prison in County Durham.
Is there not a danger of if prisoners get hold on them?
They should just give one to each prisoner and let them zap the shit out of each other. Will keep them occupied or stunned so the guards will get an easy life.
The use of Tasers in prisons will be trialled after guards were injured by the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, the justice secretary has said.
The Prison Officers' Association (POA) had called for guards to have access to electric stun guns in light of Hashem Abedi's use of makeshift weapons to attack staff at HMP Frankland, a high-security prison in County Durham.
All of us (most of us) believe it should be allowed somewhere between 1 day and nine months.
Let's imagine that Starmer thinks it should be 28 weeks which is the legal position. The law then changes to allow it at 26 weeks. His position on trans women is analogous to him then announcing that he thinks it should be 26 weeks.
Like abortion, one's position on trans women is primarily a moral one.
I would have thought that one's position on trans women would primarily be a sexual one.
There certainly seem to be a lot of missionary types on either side.
I said this the other day, the liberal and casual use of WhatsApp on phones there were mixing government business and the personal in the UK really should not be allowed.
It has been shown that the tech exists to perform to deploy spyware via these methods. Government business phones should be locked down and used only for government business.
Exactly. It's not about Signal, Signal is secure, but these personal devices are on the public internet, and there is no authentication and access control for the participants. These twerps are basically bridging the "airgaps" that are meant to separate classified and unclassified communications.
So the WH press sec starts the daily pool by introducing some "new media seat" kids and podcasters who will ask some questions and kinda broaden the narrative etc etc.
First question seems to be a long conspiracy rant about old media and MI13 gang members.
Yes, they had to stack the room with people who would tee up Nazi Barbie's stream of bullshit
Today's latest
Hesgeth leaking warplans on Signal is not a breach of national Security
People leaking that Hesgeth leaked warplans on Signal is a breach of National Security...
How does her brain not explode?
That young lady Leavitt is utterly extraordinary. There isn't a word for it. A mix of dumb blonde, insolence, charm, callousness, toadying, quick fire, got an answer for everything and it's all lies made from whole cloth, easy on the eye, dead soul, soul sold in favour of creepy men, girl next door and fascist whose story might end unhappily.
Do the Germans have a word for these people. They produced a few in their time?
The Met initially told The Telegraph it would take no further action over the signs, saying that although it had received complaints about some placards, “to date the images and signs are from historic events, did not take place in London, or do not constitute a criminal offence”.
However, the force changed its position after being presented with evidence from this newspaper that threatening signs had been displayed in central London on Saturday
The attack occurred in the Baisaran Valley, a picturesque meadow in Pahalgam, a well-known tourist town located 90 kilometres south of Srinagar, the region’s main city, in what officials are describing as the deadliest attack on civilians in the region in recent years...
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
The attack occurred in the Baisaran Valley, a picturesque meadow in Pahalgam, a well-known tourist town located 90 kilometres south of Srinagar, the region’s main city, in what officials are describing as the deadliest attack on civilians in the region in recent years...
The attack occurred in the Baisaran Valley, a picturesque meadow in Pahalgam, a well-known tourist town located 90 kilometres south of Srinagar, the region’s main city, in what officials are describing as the deadliest attack on civilians in the region in recent years...
Where he goes, disaster seems to follow.
Has anybody checked for a tattoo under his hairline?
Is Labour’s breakfast club rollout a poorly disguised bribe?
At first glance, it appears to be a much-needed step towards universal social provision, writes John Rentoul. In reality, it is a way of currying favour among voters – using taxpayers’ money
Possibly, but actually it's still a good idea. Getting a decent breakfast down them before they start school certainly will make a difference to their concentration levels.
At what age do we have to start paying for the kids school meals?
Quite. Whatever are parents for?
There is no point in bleating 'why don't parents do their job and nurture and feed their kids' because it is evident that there will always be some who don't for a variety of reasons including in the modern age being smashed off their faces on drugs.
Why not try and break that cycle by giving their kids the best start to the day possible so they can actually learn rather than be literally hungry all morning for a relatively small sum?
Make your mind up - is it "there will always be some" or is it "in the modern age"? Why not just nationalise children?
“In the modern age being smashed off their faces on drugs” was one of a number of situations that was included in the idea that there are a variety of reasons so the statement was not confused.
I thought that there was the concept of “it takes a village to raise a child” and so there has always been an understanding that parents are not the only key parties in the successful raising of children and so handing children over to schools for a bit more time and feeding the buggers isn’t massively problematic.
Agree. Feeding younger children properly and free in school - this won't be compulsory but takeup would be high - combines two decent aims. It is a good step in assisting the impossible task of equality of opportunity which should be a universal political target even though unreachable. And it being free for all is good for social cohersion. No doubt there would be some dead or sunk costs, but far less than in paying state pensions to the wealthy.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Strange also to hear the loudest condemnation of "Liberals" on this coming from a supporter of a Party which presided over a huge easing of immigration criteria after 2019 leading to a flood of legal migration.
It's my experience those opposed to "immigration" are often as opposed to unrestricted legal migration as they are to illegal migration.
Is Labour’s breakfast club rollout a poorly disguised bribe?
At first glance, it appears to be a much-needed step towards universal social provision, writes John Rentoul. In reality, it is a way of currying favour among voters – using taxpayers’ money
What does that even mean? Surely any policy could be seen as a bribe if you look at it in the right way. More police, more buses, more steel mills – are they bribes too? What of raising pensions or cutting taxes where actual cash changes hands?
Breakfast clubs would not be my priority but this is desperate stuff.
Breakfast for all schoolchildren would be a massive priority for me. Every child should start the day with a hearty breakfast to give them the energy to learn and grow. I would also ideally want them all to have a nutritious cooked lunch guaranteed for free every day.
I think feeding schoolchildren is as important as the lessons. Not only the physical benefits but to have them all sitting, eating and interacting twice a day in a quasi social setting and exposing to vegetables and other foods they might not get at home will have long term benefits.
I’m far from a bleeding heart liberal but this is something that’s v important to me.
I wish I could have given you more than one like. Children who go to school hungry, which is not their fault, find it difficult to concentrate, and are at an educational disadvantage they may never recover from. The same applies to children who can’t concentrate because they are expected by their parent(s) to act as their carers. It also applies to children who attend school tired because they haven’t had a good night’s sleep, although as they get older, this may not be entirely the parents fault. If children are fed at school, it would hopefully also reduce non attendance.
I said this the other day, the liberal and casual use of WhatsApp on phones there were mixing government business and the personal in the UK really should not be allowed.
It has been shown that the tech exists to perform to deploy spyware via these methods. Government business phones should be locked down and used only for government business.
Exactly. It's not about Signal, Signal is secure, but these personal devices are on the public internet, and there is no authentication and access control for the participants. These twerps are basically bridging the "airgaps" that are meant to separate classified and unclassified communications.
The main security issue appears to be the operator not the system. Hegseth and co are sending classified information directly to people who aren't cleared to receive it. The method is irrelevant, if he didn't have a phone he'd have shown them a paper copy.
Is Labour’s breakfast club rollout a poorly disguised bribe?
At first glance, it appears to be a much-needed step towards universal social provision, writes John Rentoul. In reality, it is a way of currying favour among voters – using taxpayers’ money
Possibly, but actually it's still a good idea. Getting a decent breakfast down them before they start school certainly will make a difference to their concentration levels.
At what age do we have to start paying for the kids school meals?
Quite. Whatever are parents for?
Well, conception for a start.
Don't need to be - I'm sure there's a techbro company in California right now working on a dystopian project to remove humans entirely from the process on a mass scale, with embryos in pods to then be reared as children in iPods, hermetically sealed bubbled full of screens to educate them to adulthood.
What for? If humans are removed from the process, why bother with more of them?
The Met initially told The Telegraph it would take no further action over the signs, saying that although it had received complaints about some placards, “to date the images and signs are from historic events, did not take place in London, or do not constitute a criminal offence”.
However, the force changed its position after being presented with evidence from this newspaper that threatening signs had been displayed in central London on Saturday
From the same police force who claimed but Jihad has multiple meanings when shown video.
The first part was such bullshit, photos / video was all over the internet that was clearly from the event on Saturday.
Sarah Vine KC told The Telegraph that the hangman placards “clearly cross the line of criminality” and suggested that police would have “no difficulty in making a decision to charge the responsible person” if the situation were reversed.
All of us (most of us) believe it should be allowed somewhere between 1 day and nine months.
Let's imagine that Starmer thinks it should be 28 weeks which is the legal position. The law then changes to allow it at 26 weeks. His position on trans women is analogous to him then announcing that he thinks it should be 26 weeks.
Like abortion, one's position on trans women is primarily a moral one.
I'd say the moral aspect is more at the extremes. Eg with abortion, being anti because it's murder, or pro because a woman owns her own body. Those views are values driven, 'moral' if you like. But when you get into the detail of things like term limits it becomes a more grounded question, about a balancing of rights, about medical realities etc. So if I (say) think 20 weeks and you think 25 weeks that's not really a moral disagreement we have.
Trans is similar. At the extremes, it's mainly principle, you are who you say you are vs you cannot be other than who you were born as. But when you get into the detail of the EA, the GRA, what a GRC means, sports, prisons, toilets etc etc, the different positions that people take are not necessarily (in fact I'd say not usually) driven by wildly different moralities.
Trans gets the resonance it does because it's the current frontline of the culture wars.
Those who actually care about transgendered people, or women, are, I suspect, in a minority.
The Met initially told The Telegraph it would take no further action over the signs, saying that although it had received complaints about some placards, “to date the images and signs are from historic events, did not take place in London, or do not constitute a criminal offence”.
However, the force changed its position after being presented with evidence from this newspaper that threatening signs had been displayed in central London on Saturday
From the same police force who claimed but Jihad has multiple meanings when shown video.
The first part was such bullshit, photos / video was all over the internet that was clearly from the event on Saturday.
Sarah Vine KC told The Telegraph that the hangman placards “clearly cross the line of criminality” and suggested that police would have “no difficulty in making a decision to charge the responsible person” if the situation were reversed.
The MET have form. They were blind to all sorts of signs and speeches at the Palestine protests. They had to be shamed in to even lifting a finger after the fact, claiming they couldn't do anything on the day because might inflame tensions. But some Iranian bloke turns up with a sign saying Hamas are terrorists and he is in the paddy wagon in 2 seconds.
I think it is likely that we will see an Indian military strike on Pakistan in the coming weeks.
Can't Donald Trump intervene and do a deal?
He would of course get it all sorted in 24hrs...checks news about Israel still bashing away in Gaza and Ukraine / Russia resuming fighting after a day off.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
You’re misunderstanding my point because you’re in an “I hate liberals” mood. I mean they are losing control of the narrative for foreign tourism. They are not going to convince cash rich Europeans (or Japanese, or Koreans, and certainly not Chinese) that America is a great safe place to visit on holiday while there are weekly stories of visitors being handcuffed and deported. Bookings are already plummeting.
They may not care about foreign tourism but presumably at least some in hospitality industry do.
And they can scream about it being fake news and pick apart every hard luck story, but the brand damage is done.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Eh? Obama deported ~5 million people.
And managed to do so without scaring Germans or Australians off going to Disneyworld with the kids or on city breaks to New York.
Is Labour’s breakfast club rollout a poorly disguised bribe?
At first glance, it appears to be a much-needed step towards universal social provision, writes John Rentoul. In reality, it is a way of currying favour among voters – using taxpayers’ money
Possibly, but actually it's still a good idea. Getting a decent breakfast down them before they start school certainly will make a difference to their concentration levels.
At what age do we have to start paying for the kids school meals?
Quite. Whatever are parents for?
Well, conception for a start.
Don't need to be - I'm sure there's a techbro company in California right now working on a dystopian project to remove humans entirely from the process on a mass scale, with embryos in pods to then be reared as children in iPods, hermetically sealed bubbled full of screens to educate them to adulthood.
What for? If humans are removed from the process, why bother with more of them?
The Rest is Entertainment takes a timely look at faith-based films:-
Is Jesus The Box Office Miracle Hollywood Needs?
Has Christian movie making resurrected the Box Office?
Richard Osman and Marina Hyde explore the phenomenal success of religious programming in Hollywood - including the smash hit from Angel Studios 'King Of Kings'. But why are LA's rich and famous flocking to church all of a sudden, and are they all praying for Justin Baldoni? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPP-gQVym9E
Labour MP Tahir Ali takes it to the Tories (Blackman, Jenrick & Badenoch)—claiming they’re controlled by the Indian lobby—in a fiery speech at the Mirpur Airport conference in Birmingham.
The Rest is Entertainment takes a timely look at faith-based films:-
Is Jesus The Box Office Miracle Hollywood Needs?
Has Christian movie making resurrected the Box Office?
Richard Osman and Marina Hyde explore the phenomenal success of religious programming in Hollywood - including the smash hit from Angel Studios 'King Of Kings'. But why are LA's rich and famous flocking to church all of a sudden, and are they all praying for Justin Baldoni? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPP-gQVym9E
Faith based films have been pretty successful in the USA for quite a few years, although I think only a few have gone top of the box office big.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Eh? Obama deported ~5 million people.
And managed to do so without scaring Germans or Australians off going to Disneyworld with the kids or on city breaks to New York.
Although as has been revealed on PB often the cases in the media are not exactly what they seem. It’s the focus through the Trump lens that is the issue, just as with air crashes. How’s that going in the last month? Seems to have gone quiet.
OpenAI would be interested in buying Google's Chrome if antitrust enforcers are successful in forcing the Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab unit to sell the popular web browser as part of a bid to restore competition in search, an OpenAI executive testified on Tuesday at Google's antitrust trial in Washington.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
You’re misunderstanding my point because you’re in an “I hate liberals” mood. I mean they are losing control of the narrative for foreign tourism. They are not going to convince cash rich Europeans (or Japanese, or Koreans, and certainly not Chinese) that America is a great safe place to visit on holiday while there are weekly stories of visitors being handcuffed and deported. Bookings are already plummeting.
They may not care about foreign tourism but presumably at least some in hospitality industry do.
And they can scream about it being fake news and pick apart every hard luck story, but the brand damage is done.
A US programming/IT conference I was booked in for in late May has had a very serious drop-off in non-US (for what it's worth) attendee's. And one speaker has dropped out citing worries for their family and border hassles. Luckily I was only on the 'virtual' video conference list.
It's quite clear now that the leadership of the Justice Department is utterly corrupt. They have become Trump's personal enforcers without any regard to the law.
Three U.S. prosecutors in New York working on the federal case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams resigned today, sending a letter to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche accusing him of allegedly pressuring them to falsely "express regret and admit some wrongdoing" in the case... https://x.com/MLevineReports/status/1914711716669108456
I said this the other day, the liberal and casual use of WhatsApp on phones there were mixing government business and the personal in the UK really should not be allowed.
It has been shown that the tech exists to perform to deploy spyware via these methods. Government business phones should be locked down and used only for government business.
Exactly. It's not about Signal, Signal is secure, but these personal devices are on the public internet, and there is no authentication and access control for the participants. These twerps are basically bridging the "airgaps" that are meant to separate classified and unclassified communications.
The main security issue appears to be the operator not the system. Hegseth and co are sending classified information directly to people who aren't cleared to receive it. The method is irrelevant, if he didn't have a phone he'd have shown them a paper copy.
Well sure, people are usually the problem and tech doesn't eliminate the problem, though tech and procedure can potentially make it less easy to do.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Eh? Obama deported ~5 million people.
And managed to do so without scaring Germans or Australians off going to Disneyworld with the kids or on city breaks to New York.
This is almost exactly the same as the Tesla disaster. The MAGA establishment have forgotten that most rich people - the people with passports - are actually "centrist liberals". Just look at the voting demographics.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Eh? Obama deported ~5 million people.
And managed to do so without scaring Germans or Australians off going to Disneyworld with the kids or on city breaks to New York.
Although as has been revealed on PB often the cases in the media are not exactly what they seem. It’s the focus through the Trump lens that is the issue, just as with air crashes. How’s that going in the last month? Seems to have gone quiet.
That’s why I say they’ve lost control of the narrative. Them saying it’s safe to visit the US is like British beef farmers telling Europeans their product was safe in the 90s.
And why I also say it serves them right, because they’ve been spreading disinformation about the safety of foreign countries (and their own blue states) for years.
It's quite clear now that the leadership of the Justice Department is utterly corrupt. They have become Trump's personal enforcers without any regard to the law.
Three U.S. prosecutors in New York working on the federal case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams resigned today, sending a letter to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche accusing him of allegedly pressuring them to falsely "express regret and admit some wrongdoing" in the case... https://x.com/MLevineReports/status/1914711716669108456
The worst thing is that people resigning in such situations is probably rare. Even well qualified attorneys don't normally resign when pressured to sacrifice a little integrity.
The allegation here if true would appear once again to demonstrate it's not enough that the corrupt succeed, they want to get others to grovel before them too. Truly Dukatian.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Quite a bit hangs on what you mean by 'liberal'. In the USA at this moment there is an unambiguous issue about forcing people to leave the country, some to foreign prisons, but without any trial or process or hearing to find out who they are, what their case is, and what the state's case is.
I will venture a guess here. The Trump supporters, who think liberals are of the devil, believe and assume that they and their families and friends have such a right of hearing before they themselves are deported to a foreign country. And that it is right that this is so, because it is the right thing to do.
I will venture the guess that nearly all Trump supporters are secretly 'liberals' about their rights as people living in the USA. They are just pretending.
The Met initially told The Telegraph it would take no further action over the signs, saying that although it had received complaints about some placards, “to date the images and signs are from historic events, did not take place in London, or do not constitute a criminal offence”.
However, the force changed its position after being presented with evidence from this newspaper that threatening signs had been displayed in central London on Saturday
From the same police force who claimed but Jihad has multiple meanings when shown video.
The first part was such bullshit, photos / video was all over the internet that was clearly from the event on Saturday.
Sarah Vine KC told The Telegraph that the hangman placards “clearly cross the line of criminality” and suggested that police would have “no difficulty in making a decision to charge the responsible person” if the situation were reversed.
The MET have form. They were blind to all sorts of signs and speeches at the Palestine protests. They had to be shamed in to even lifting a finger after the fact, claiming they couldn't do anything on the day because might inflame tensions. But some Iranian bloke turns up with a sign saying Hamas are terrorists and he is in the paddy wagon in 2 seconds.
Are these signs really an incitement to murder, though, especially as no individual is named? Pace the KC, has any ‘immediate violence’ been visited on terfs? The signs are offensive, no doubt, but are they criminal?
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
You’re misunderstanding my point because you’re in an “I hate liberals” mood. I mean they are losing control of the narrative for foreign tourism. They are not going to convince cash rich Europeans (or Japanese, or Koreans, and certainly not Chinese) that America is a great safe place to visit on holiday while there are weekly stories of visitors being handcuffed and deported. Bookings are already plummeting.
They may not care about foreign tourism but presumably at least some in hospitality industry do.
And they can scream about it being fake news and pick apart every hard luck story, but the brand damage is done.
A US programming/IT conference I was booked in for in late May has had a very serious drop-off in non-US (for what it's worth) attendee's. And one speaker has dropped out citing worries for their family and border hassles. Luckily I was only on the 'virtual' video conference list.
I know people who visit America regularly for work reasons who no longer wish to. I know lots of people who have simply crossed it off their list of possible destinations.
It's quite clear now that the leadership of the Justice Department is utterly corrupt. They have become Trump's personal enforcers without any regard to the law.
Three U.S. prosecutors in New York working on the federal case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams resigned today, sending a letter to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche accusing him of allegedly pressuring them to falsely "express regret and admit some wrongdoing" in the case... https://x.com/MLevineReports/status/1914711716669108456
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Eh? Obama deported ~5 million people.
And managed to do so without scaring Germans or Australians off going to Disneyworld with the kids or on city breaks to New York.
This is almost exactly the same as the Tesla disaster. The MAGA establishment have forgotten that most rich people - the people with passports - are actually "centrist liberals". Just look at the voting demographics.
I think you might need to provide some data to substantiate that. We know that centrist liberals are mostly drawn from the ranks of wealthier people who have passports (who else would be delighted about the prevailing liberal centrist consensus than people who have succeeded within it?), but that is not the same at all as saying that most wealthier people with passports are drawn from the ranks of centrist liberals. Most probably have no interest in politics at all - only 59% of the electorate even voted in the UK.
The Met initially told The Telegraph it would take no further action over the signs, saying that although it had received complaints about some placards, “to date the images and signs are from historic events, did not take place in London, or do not constitute a criminal offence”.
However, the force changed its position after being presented with evidence from this newspaper that threatening signs had been displayed in central London on Saturday
From the same police force who claimed but Jihad has multiple meanings when shown video.
The first part was such bullshit, photos / video was all over the internet that was clearly from the event on Saturday.
Sarah Vine KC told The Telegraph that the hangman placards “clearly cross the line of criminality” and suggested that police would have “no difficulty in making a decision to charge the responsible person” if the situation were reversed.
The MET have form. They were blind to all sorts of signs and speeches at the Palestine protests. They had to be shamed in to even lifting a finger after the fact, claiming they couldn't do anything on the day because might inflame tensions. But some Iranian bloke turns up with a sign saying Hamas are terrorists and he is in the paddy wagon in 2 seconds.
Are these signs really an incitement to murder, though, especially as no individual is named? Pace the KC, has any ‘immediate violence’ been visited on terfs? The signs are offensive, no doubt, but are they criminal?
Probably not literally a call to violence, but would police be blase in other instances? Where is the threshold now for police to judge how sincere a sign is,
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Eh? Obama deported ~5 million people.
And managed to do so without scaring Germans or Australians off going to Disneyworld with the kids or on city breaks to New York.
Although as has been revealed on PB often the cases in the media are not exactly what they seem. It’s the focus through the Trump lens that is the issue, just as with air crashes. How’s that going in the last month? Seems to have gone quiet.
Having a quick google, it seems like most years, about one British person a week would be detained and deported. We have had 1 story in 4 months of such a case. It is total fear mongering. You can find similar hard luck stories every year e.g. the family who accidentally drove from Canada across the border with the US along a stretch were it is just grass. Even if they were being clever dicks as around that time there were YouTube videos about this location, it got detained for days and deported, but barely got any press that they more than likely were very hard done by.
Now the deportation of people El Salvador without due process isn't, I would be very worried if I was in the US illegally and had some vague connection to a gang / previously committed any sort of crime.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
You’re misunderstanding my point because you’re in an “I hate liberals” mood. I mean they are losing control of the narrative for foreign tourism. They are not going to convince cash rich Europeans (or Japanese, or Koreans, and certainly not Chinese) that America is a great safe place to visit on holiday while there are weekly stories of visitors being handcuffed and deported. Bookings are already plummeting.
They may not care about foreign tourism but presumably at least some in hospitality industry do.
And they can scream about it being fake news and pick apart every hard luck story, but the brand damage is done.
Corellation doesn't imply causation.
Bookings are dropping, sure, but that's not because rich Europeans fear being deported to El Savador but because they are repelled by Trump's America and what it's doing to their economies.
The Met initially told The Telegraph it would take no further action over the signs, saying that although it had received complaints about some placards, “to date the images and signs are from historic events, did not take place in London, or do not constitute a criminal offence”.
However, the force changed its position after being presented with evidence from this newspaper that threatening signs had been displayed in central London on Saturday
From the same police force who claimed but Jihad has multiple meanings when shown video.
The first part was such bullshit, photos / video was all over the internet that was clearly from the event on Saturday.
Sarah Vine KC told The Telegraph that the hangman placards “clearly cross the line of criminality” and suggested that police would have “no difficulty in making a decision to charge the responsible person” if the situation were reversed.
The MET have form. They were blind to all sorts of signs and speeches at the Palestine protests. They had to be shamed in to even lifting a finger after the fact, claiming they couldn't do anything on the day because might inflame tensions. But some Iranian bloke turns up with a sign saying Hamas are terrorists and he is in the paddy wagon in 2 seconds.
Are these signs really an incitement to murder, though, especially as no individual is named? Pace the KC, has any ‘immediate violence’ been visited on terfs? The signs are offensive, no doubt, but are they criminal?
That Tory woman who is banged up didn't call out any specific individuals.
The Rest is Entertainment takes a timely look at faith-based films:-
Is Jesus The Box Office Miracle Hollywood Needs?
Has Christian movie making resurrected the Box Office?
Richard Osman and Marina Hyde explore the phenomenal success of religious programming in Hollywood - including the smash hit from Angel Studios 'King Of Kings'. But why are LA's rich and famous flocking to church all of a sudden, and are they all praying for Justin Baldoni? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPP-gQVym9E
I love The Greatest Story Ever Told. Mary Magdalene is beautiful
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Eh? Obama deported ~5 million people.
And managed to do so without scaring Germans or Australians off going to Disneyworld with the kids or on city breaks to New York.
This is silly. No Germans or Australians are avoiding city breaks or Disneyworld because they fear getting deported with their kids.
Such a great actor: he was absolutely brilliant in the latest White Lotus too.
Have you seen the SNL spoof?
Yes: it was moderately amusing
An SNL first.
I have never got SNL and not just recent past with the polarisation / boring predictable orange man bad dominating sketches.
I remember first seeing it 25+ years ago and the Americans I were staying with it was "unmissable" tv. It seems absolute crap then.
They are launching SNL UK shortly. Inevitably it will be as funny and bang up to date as HIGNFY. The internet has already done all the jokes, better, by the time the programmes are written and aired.
The TV version of 'The Daily Mash' was a terrible disappointment. It was like a dull, Guardian version of Bernard Manning doing "Have I told you about the Daily Mail? Eh? Eh? Amirite?" :: huge applause and guffawing from the audience ::
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
You’re misunderstanding my point because you’re in an “I hate liberals” mood. I mean they are losing control of the narrative for foreign tourism. They are not going to convince cash rich Europeans (or Japanese, or Koreans, and certainly not Chinese) that America is a great safe place to visit on holiday while there are weekly stories of visitors being handcuffed and deported. Bookings are already plummeting.
They may not care about foreign tourism but presumably at least some in hospitality industry do.
And they can scream about it being fake news and pick apart every hard luck story, but the brand damage is done.
Corellation doesn't imply causation.
Bookings are dropping, sure, but that's not because rich Europeans fear being deported to El Savador but because they are repelled by Trump's America and what it's doing to their economies.
The US is now also f##king expensive. Disney ticket prices are crazy, as is food / drink / hotels, and that is before the insanity of tipping. There is a cost of living crisis in most of Western world, paying ~$1000 for just a single day at Mickey Mouse Land in Florida for a family of 4 is going to stretch most families.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
You’re misunderstanding my point because you’re in an “I hate liberals” mood. I mean they are losing control of the narrative for foreign tourism. They are not going to convince cash rich Europeans (or Japanese, or Koreans, and certainly not Chinese) that America is a great safe place to visit on holiday while there are weekly stories of visitors being handcuffed and deported. Bookings are already plummeting.
They may not care about foreign tourism but presumably at least some in hospitality industry do.
And they can scream about it being fake news and pick apart every hard luck story, but the brand damage is done.
Corellation doesn't imply causation.
Bookings are dropping, sure, but that's not because rich Europeans fear being deported to El Savador but because they are repelled by Trump's America and what it's doing to their economies.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Eh? Obama deported ~5 million people.
And managed to do so without scaring Germans or Australians off going to Disneyworld with the kids or on city breaks to New York.
This is silly. No Germans or Australians are avoiding city breaks or Disneyworld because they fear getting deported with their kids.
You've drunk the Koolaid.
No I haven’t. There’s already evidence of it happening, and not just in the Guardian.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Eh? Obama deported ~5 million people.
And managed to do so without scaring Germans or Australians off going to Disneyworld with the kids or on city breaks to New York.
This is almost exactly the same as the Tesla disaster. The MAGA establishment have forgotten that most rich people - the people with passports - are actually "centrist liberals". Just look at the voting demographics.
I think you might need to provide some data to substantiate that. We know that centrist liberals are mostly drawn from the ranks of wealthier people who have passports (who else would be delighted about the prevailing liberal centrist consensus than people who have succeeded within it?), but that is not the same at all as saying that most wealthier people with passports are drawn from the ranks of centrist liberals. Most probably have no interest in politics at all - only 59% of the electorate even voted in the UK.
Lots of people are liberals who have never thought about it. You can tell it from what they believe their own rights are WRT the state and the community.
For example they are likely to believe they should not be imprisoned without a fair trial. That completely minimal liberal understanding entails a belief that they should not accidentally be placed by the state in some other category of person who may not have such a right. Etc.
The Rest is Entertainment takes a timely look at faith-based films:-
Is Jesus The Box Office Miracle Hollywood Needs?
Has Christian movie making resurrected the Box Office?
Richard Osman and Marina Hyde explore the phenomenal success of religious programming in Hollywood - including the smash hit from Angel Studios 'King Of Kings'. But why are LA's rich and famous flocking to church all of a sudden, and are they all praying for Justin Baldoni? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPP-gQVym9E
I love The Greatest Story Ever Told. Mary Magdalene is beautiful
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Eh? Obama deported ~5 million people.
And managed to do so without scaring Germans or Australians off going to Disneyworld with the kids or on city breaks to New York.
This is almost exactly the same as the Tesla disaster. The MAGA establishment have forgotten that most rich people - the people with passports - are actually "centrist liberals". Just look at the voting demographics.
I think you might need to provide some data to substantiate that. We know that centrist liberals are mostly drawn from the ranks of wealthier people who have passports (who else would be delighted about the prevailing liberal centrist consensus than people who have succeeded within it?), but that is not the same at all as saying that most wealthier people with passports are drawn from the ranks of centrist liberals. Most probably have no interest in politics at all - only 59% of the electorate even voted in the UK.
YouGov '24 polling was pretty clear; once you get to household incomes* over £70,000, Lab-Lib-Green have a 30-point lead over Ref-Con. I don't think we've fully comprehended that shift.
*Which is different to wealth, to be fair. Using housing tenure as a proxy, Ref-Con have a 12-point lead.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Eh? Obama deported ~5 million people.
And managed to do so without scaring Germans or Australians off going to Disneyworld with the kids or on city breaks to New York.
This is silly. No Germans or Australians are avoiding city breaks or Disneyworld because they fear getting deported with their kids.
You've drunk the Koolaid.
Conversation with a PhD student today about his plans for post doc. Would be happy to work in the US, but only as he has a US passport. There is real concern out there, albeit it’s mainly a media confection. But as TimS says, it’s about the narrative.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Eh? Obama deported ~5 million people.
And managed to do so without scaring Germans or Australians off going to Disneyworld with the kids or on city breaks to New York.
Although as has been revealed on PB often the cases in the media are not exactly what they seem. It’s the focus through the Trump lens that is the issue, just as with air crashes. How’s that going in the last month? Seems to have gone quiet.
Having a quick google, it seems like most years, about one British person a week would be detained and deported. We have had 1 story in 4 months of such a case. It is total fear mongering. You can find similar hard luck stories every year e.g. the family who accidentally drove from Canada across the border with the US along a stretch were it is just grass. Even if they were being clever dicks as around that time there were YouTube videos about this location, it got detained for days and deported, but barely got any press that they more than likely were very hard done by.
Now the deportation of people El Salvador without due process isn't, I would be very worried if I was in the US illegally and had some vague connection to a gang / previously committed any sort of crime.
Yes, it's absurd. If the Obama administration was doing it then it wouldn't even get a mention.
As it happens I've never particularly liked going to the US or their immigration control anyway but would this stop me going if i was already inclined to do so?
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
You’re misunderstanding my point because you’re in an “I hate liberals” mood. I mean they are losing control of the narrative for foreign tourism. They are not going to convince cash rich Europeans (or Japanese, or Koreans, and certainly not Chinese) that America is a great safe place to visit on holiday while there are weekly stories of visitors being handcuffed and deported. Bookings are already plummeting.
They may not care about foreign tourism but presumably at least some in hospitality industry do.
And they can scream about it being fake news and pick apart every hard luck story, but the brand damage is done.
Corellation doesn't imply causation.
Bookings are dropping, sure, but that's not because rich Europeans fear being deported to El Savador but because they are repelled by Trump's America and what it's doing to their economies.
The US is now also f##king expensive.
What we're seeing here now is confirmation bias.
Perhaps it is, but it's MAGA doing the confirming with their callous lack of care. You wouldn't expect Vance to come charging to your rescue.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
You’re misunderstanding my point because you’re in an “I hate liberals” mood. I mean they are losing control of the narrative for foreign tourism. They are not going to convince cash rich Europeans (or Japanese, or Koreans, and certainly not Chinese) that America is a great safe place to visit on holiday while there are weekly stories of visitors being handcuffed and deported. Bookings are already plummeting.
They may not care about foreign tourism but presumably at least some in hospitality industry do.
And they can scream about it being fake news and pick apart every hard luck story, but the brand damage is done.
Corellation doesn't imply causation.
Bookings are dropping, sure, but that's not because rich Europeans fear being deported to El Savador but because they are repelled by Trump's America and what it's doing to their economies.
The US is now also f##king expensive. Disney ticket prices are crazy, as is food / drink / hotels, and that is before the insanity of tipping. There is a cost of living crisis in most of Western world, paying ~$1000 for just a single day at Mickey Mouse Land in Florida for a family of 4 is going to stretch most families.
The tips are infuriating. All of this combined with a sense you’re not welcome is not a great selling point for tourism.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Eh? Obama deported ~5 million people.
And managed to do so without scaring Germans or Australians off going to Disneyworld with the kids or on city breaks to New York.
This is silly. No Germans or Australians are avoiding city breaks or Disneyworld because they fear getting deported with their kids.
You've drunk the Koolaid.
Conversation with a PhD student today about his plans for post doc. Would be happy to work in the US, but only as he has a US passport. There is real concern out there, albeit it’s mainly a media confection. But as TimS says, it’s about the narrative.
My point is that the narrative is the favoured one of your wing of the political spectrum, and is thus unrepresentative.
Those who favour this, and there will be many - in their millions - will be following an entirely different narrative.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
You’re misunderstanding my point because you’re in an “I hate liberals” mood. I mean they are losing control of the narrative for foreign tourism. They are not going to convince cash rich Europeans (or Japanese, or Koreans, and certainly not Chinese) that America is a great safe place to visit on holiday while there are weekly stories of visitors being handcuffed and deported. Bookings are already plummeting.
They may not care about foreign tourism but presumably at least some in hospitality industry do.
And they can scream about it being fake news and pick apart every hard luck story, but the brand damage is done.
Corellation doesn't imply causation.
Bookings are dropping, sure, but that's not because rich Europeans fear being deported to El Savador but because they are repelled by Trump's America and what it's doing to their economies.
The US is now also f##king expensive. Disney ticket prices are crazy, as is food / drink / hotels, and that is before the insanity of tipping. There is a cost of living crisis in most of Western world, paying ~$1000 for just a single day at Mickey Mouse Land in Florida for a family of 4 is going to stretch most families.
That’s before the tips too. All of this combined with a sense you’re not welcome is not a great selling point for tourism.
(I’m off there again - for work - next week.)
I am out there for most of the summer on business* and currently costing things up and there isn't really any cheap way these days. Hotels, expensive, AirBnB expensive, food at supermarkets expensive, eating out, expensive, and as you tips are now 20-25% and expected for absolutely everything. It used to be that if you didn't care too much for your waist line and happy to stay in rather generic hotels, it was very cheap for day to day living costs.
The things with the tips are minimum wage used to be stupidly low and the meal was cheap, so paying 15-20% tip on $10 meal wasn't that much and you knew it was because your server was on $7/hr. Now in some states its $15-20 / hr and your meal is easily $30, so 25% is not an nothing and adds up fast as it is every interaction you have with a somebody.
* I will get my sob story ready for the Guardian when I get banged up.
Just back from walking the dogs and heard the first cuckoo! Summer’s on the way, folks!
Great article in this months FT* about folklore of cuckoos. It used to the tradition in some Welsh collieries to have a day off (which inevitably was spent drinking) on the first day a cuckoo was heard and reported to the overseer. A tradition I’d like to revive.
Leavitt: "I think most recognize the U.S. Is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit and they should come here because it is a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."
Narrator: People are literally being deported for having phone messages being mean about Trumpski or snatched off the street with no due process.
They’re losing control of the narrative on this, and it serves them right. They’ve spent years telling everyone Democrat-run cities (and most of Europe) are hellholes and no go areas running with blood.
They're really not.
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
Eh? Obama deported ~5 million people.
And managed to do so without scaring Germans or Australians off going to Disneyworld with the kids or on city breaks to New York.
This is silly. No Germans or Australians are avoiding city breaks or Disneyworld because they fear getting deported with their kids.
You've drunk the Koolaid.
Conversation with a PhD student today about his plans for post doc. Would be happy to work in the US, but only as he has a US passport. There is real concern out there, albeit it’s mainly a media confection. But as TimS says, it’s about the narrative.
My point is that the narrative is the favoured one of your wing of the political spectrum, and is thus unrepresentative.
Those who favour this, and there will be many - in their millions - will be following an entirely different narrative.
Are there really millions of foreigners who will be more inclined to visit the US now because they agree with its immigration policy? I’m sure there will be many who don’t care or think it’s overblown (what’s why bookings aren’t down 100%), but this doesn’t seem like a symmetrical effect to me.
Comments
I remember first seeing it 25+ years ago and the Americans I were staying with it was "unmissable" tv. It seems absolute crap then.
* It also needs to be remembered that many of these are lagging indicators, if things look poor now they will likely look at lot worse as time moves on.
There was a good analogy I heard earlier on the radio, that the US is effectively applying what would normally be consideder economic sanctions, but to itself.
I thought that there was the concept of “it takes a village to raise a child” and so there has always been an understanding that parents are not the only key parties in the successful raising of children and so handing children over to schools for a bit more time and feeding the buggers isn’t massively problematic.
Today's latest
Hesgeth leaking warplans on Signal is not a breach of national Security
People leaking that Hesgeth leaked warplans on Signal is a breach of National Security...
How does her brain not explode?
Incidentally: the latest research shows that the audience for the BBC1 Francis film was lower than the number of British Catholics going to Mass each Sunday - and that number's lower than the number of Anglicans going to church each Sunday. Growing interest in religion isn't measured by TV audiences.
Even weekly topically stand up shows where comics do 5 mins each on a story of the week haven't worked.
A second point, if you are a Pope fan you probably know all you want to know about his life, so a long special is not interesting. If you are a member of the group forming most news followers, your thoughts immediately turn (see PB for illustration) on what it means for the future - who is next, what's the politics, what's the odds, who is interesting, what's the gossip, what can go wrong, did JD Vance kill the pope, any good conspiracy theories etc. BBC is not good at this.
Don't tell anyone but most popes are quite boring. JPII was the great exception in our times. Gregory VII and Gregory the Great are two others worth a TV prog.
It's the tide that King Canute's courtiers told him with obey his every word.
https://x.com/RosieDuffield1/status/1914727107294556204
@RosieDuffield1
Thanks to @KemiBadenoch whose brilliant speech just now was the actual truth, not a new rewritten convenient version if it. She has been one of the most consistent supporters of feminists and women's sex-based rights, unlike any of those opposite now pretending to be.
https://youtu.be/YvT_gqs5ETk?si=4Z8Mfz42ut1xMwwk
It has been shown that the tech exists to perform to deploy spyware via these methods. Government business phones should be locked down and used only for government business.
It seems to me that he never attained the rockstar status of JPII (perhaps no-one could given the general standing of the church nowadays) but for a period after his election he did genuinely generate a lot of fascination and interest. I think that waned very heavily over time. For those expecting him to be a sweeping reformer, I think he was less radical than they expected. And he was never greatly loved by the conservative wing. In the last few years it has felt like everyone has been looking to what came next for the church rather than to the remaining acts of Francis. He did lose a lot of vitality. And as a result I am not convinced he broke through as a figure of wider public interest.
And by making the parts inseparable - combining the stuff of trade associations with profound political projects like the Euro and FOM - they sought to make it impossible to break by a democratic process.
Life moves on of course and all politics is relative. The EU now looks an island of sanity surrounding by the growing fascism of the USA.
The Prison Officers' Association (POA) had called for guards to have access to electric stun guns in light of Hashem Abedi's use of makeshift weapons to attack staff at HMP Frankland, a high-security prison in County Durham.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1me7d2vn99o
Is there not a danger of if prisoners get hold on them?
I saw one cop show where they put their guns in coded lockers before entering their offices and nearly fell out of my chair in surprise.
Do the Germans have a word for these people. They produced a few in their time?
The Met initially told The Telegraph it would take no further action over the signs, saying that although it had received complaints about some placards, “to date the images and signs are from historic events, did not take place in London, or do not constitute a criminal offence”.
However, the force changed its position after being presented with evidence from this newspaper that threatening signs had been displayed in central London on Saturday
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/22/trans-activists-death-threat-placards-reviewed-by-police/
From the same police force who claimed but Jihad has multiple meanings when shown video.
The first part was such bullshit, photos / video was all over the internet that was clearly from the event on Saturday.
Very nasty incident in Kashmir.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/22/tourists-killed-by-suspected-militants-in-kashmir-attack
At least 28 tourists have been killed after suspected militants opened fire at a popular local tourist destination in Kashmir during a scheduled four-day visit to the country by the US president JD Vance.
The attack occurred in the Baisaran Valley, a picturesque meadow in Pahalgam, a well-known tourist town located 90 kilometres south of Srinagar, the region’s main city, in what officials are describing as the deadliest attack on civilians in the region in recent years...
Outside of Bluesky and the Twittersphere (which is what you, as a liberal centrist, mean when you refer to 'control of the narrative') this will be wildy popular.
I don't think Liberals understand just how far the Overton window has shifted on illegal migration, nor how far out of step they are with public sympathies.
The inevitable handful of hard luck cases just won't swing it anymore. Not when you've spent years trying to stop anyone from being deported.
It's my experience those opposed to "immigration" are often as opposed to unrestricted legal migration as they are to illegal migration.
https://x.com/shashj/status/1914728750324867527
I think it is likely that we will see an Indian military strike on Pakistan in the coming weeks.
She said: “Any reasonable person looking at the message “The only good terf is a ---- terf” would be likely to believe that immediate violence would be used against anyone perceived as a ‘terf’.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/22/trans-activists-death-threat-placards-reviewed-by-police/ (£££)
Three days later...
Those who actually care about transgendered people, or women, are, I suspect, in a minority.
They may not care about foreign tourism but presumably at least some in hospitality industry do.
And they can scream about it being fake news and pick apart every hard luck story, but the brand damage is done.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_Sun
Is Jesus The Box Office Miracle Hollywood Needs?
Has Christian movie making resurrected the Box Office?
Richard Osman and Marina Hyde explore the phenomenal success of religious programming in Hollywood - including the smash hit from Angel Studios 'King Of Kings'. But why are LA's rich and famous flocking to church all of a sudden, and are they all praying for Justin Baldoni?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPP-gQVym9E
They have become Trump's personal enforcers without any regard to the law.
Three U.S. prosecutors in New York working on the federal case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams resigned today, sending a letter to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche accusing him of allegedly pressuring them to falsely "express regret and admit some wrongdoing" in the case...
https://x.com/MLevineReports/status/1914711716669108456
And why I also say it serves them right, because they’ve been spreading disinformation about the safety of foreign countries (and their own blue states) for years.
The allegation here if true would appear once again to demonstrate it's not enough that the corrupt succeed, they want to get others to grovel before them too. Truly Dukatian.
I will venture a guess here. The Trump supporters, who think liberals are of the devil, believe and assume that they and their families and friends have such a right of hearing before they themselves are deported to a foreign country. And that it is right that this is so, because it is the right thing to do.
I will venture the guess that nearly all Trump supporters are secretly 'liberals' about their rights as people living in the USA. They are just pretending.
Now the deportation of people El Salvador without due process isn't, I would be very worried if I was in the US illegally and had some vague connection to a gang / previously committed any sort of crime.
Bookings are dropping, sure, but that's not because rich Europeans fear being deported to El Savador but because they are repelled by Trump's America and what it's doing to their economies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epupZLvDDts
You've drunk the Koolaid.
For example they are likely to believe they should not be imprisoned without a fair trial. That completely minimal liberal understanding entails a belief that they should not accidentally be placed by the state in some other category of person who may not have such a right. Etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGcIvK7f77o
(Also, a great song and singer)
(Also, boy was I disappointed when I went to the local Presbyterian church. Very, very little disco.)
*Which is different to wealth, to be fair. Using housing tenure as a proxy, Ref-Con have a 12-point lead.
As it happens I've never particularly liked going to the US or their immigration control anyway but would this stop me going if i was already inclined to do so?
Absolutely not.
(I’m off there again - for work - next week.)
Those who favour this, and there will be many - in their millions - will be following an entirely different narrative.
The things with the tips are minimum wage used to be stupidly low and the meal was cheap, so paying 15-20% tip on $10 meal wasn't that much and you knew it was because your server was on $7/hr. Now in some states its $15-20 / hr and your meal is easily $30, so 25% is not an nothing and adds up fast as it is every interaction you have with a somebody.
* I will get my sob story ready for the Guardian when I get banged up.
A tradition I’d like to revive.
*FT = Fortean Times.