Hour by hour, the numbers get more horrifying. Medical staff inside Iran report over 3,500 killed and more than 10,000 wounded, just those registered in hospitals. This is a massacre unfolding in Iran https://x.com/AlinejadMasih/status/2010408790378553348
It's a very populous country with a lot of problems and an entrenched, fanatical regime run by decrepit old bigots (ones who have seen some big losses amongst their foreign proxies in the last year) - which suggests sadly the toll could rise much much higher. Even successful revolutions, which most are not, come with a lot of blood spilled.
3,500 is way more than previous uprisings in Iran, I think. If true. 500 killed in the last round of hijab protests.
1,100 killed in the Romanian revolution of 1989, which was the bloodiest in recent European history. “Only” 108 killed in Ukraine’s revolution in 2014.
Something to remember
When the leaders of Iran turn up in the West, demanding asylum, a number of people will demand they are given it.
It will be interesting to compare statements from their parties, organisations, or even themselves (in the case of the older ones) when the progressive types demanded that the Shan of Iran (then very ill) be given no asylum because he was a Bad Man.
Do you think we should accept asylum seekers fleeing this murderous regime or do you think we should send them back?
Iranians are one of the more frequent nations in asylum applications.
Members of the regime, if it falls, should be sent back to face criminal courts in Iran, based on a guarantee of no death penalty & and a fair trial.
And no, "But I'm fucking guilty, so I won't stand a chance in court" isn't a valid argument.
Were you for or against the Shah receiving asylum?
Yes, I had no problem with the Shah fleeing for asylum.
But I was asking about the Iranian asylum seekers fleeing the current regime. Do you think they should be sent back? Or do you support their application?
No US carrier in the region as the only one there was redeployed to the Caribbean in November.
Reminder that there is not a single U.S. Carrier Strike Group currently deployed to the Middle East, and the closest carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), is in the South China Sea and would take several days if not a week to reach Iran. It is extremely unlikely and incredibly risky to launch strikes against Iran without a carrier - or two - in the region.. https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2010166736775999776
For a minute I thought he meant Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine .
He's an optimist.
'Four great men - Nigel Farage, Rupert Lowe, Ben Habib and Tommy Robinson, need to get together to reconcile over a pint, and Make Britain Great Again.'
Hour by hour, the numbers get more horrifying. Medical staff inside Iran report over 3,500 killed and more than 10,000 wounded, just those registered in hospitals. This is a massacre unfolding in Iran https://x.com/AlinejadMasih/status/2010408790378553348
It's a very populous country with a lot of problems and an entrenched, fanatical regime run by decrepit old bigots (ones who have seen some big losses amongst their foreign proxies in the last year) - which suggests sadly the toll could rise much much higher. Even successful revolutions, which most are not, come with a lot of blood spilled.
3,500 is way more than previous uprisings in Iran, I think. If true. 500 killed in the last round of hijab protests.
1,100 killed in the Romanian revolution of 1989, which was the bloodiest in recent European history. “Only” 108 killed in Ukraine’s revolution in 2014.
Something to remember
When the leaders of Iran turn up in the West, demanding asylum, a number of people will demand they are given it.
It will be interesting to compare statements from their parties, organisations, or even themselves (in the case of the older ones) when the progressive types demanded that the Shan of Iran (then very ill) be given no asylum because he was a Bad Man.
Do you think we should accept asylum seekers fleeing this murderous regime or do you think we should send them back?
Iranians are one of the more frequent nations in asylum applications.
Members of the regime, if it falls, should be sent back to face criminal courts in Iran, based on a guarantee of no death penalty & and a fair trial.
And no, "But I'm fucking guilty, so I won't stand a chance in court" isn't a valid argument.
Were you for or against the Shah receiving asylum?
Yes, I had no problem with the Shah fleeing for asylum.
But I was asking about the Iranian asylum seekers fleeing the current regime. Do you think they should be sent back? Or do you support their application?
I do, because they aren't the ones who shouted Death To The West for decades. And they didn't pay some patsies to murder journalists working at Chiswick Park Business Centre - among a long, long list of terrorism around the world, committed by the Iranian government.
As for the members of the regime - Fuck 'em if they can't take their own joke.
No US carrier in the region as the only onIsa e there was redeployed to the Caribbean in November.
Reminder that there is not a single U.S. Carrier Strike Group currently deployed to the Middle East, and the closest carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), is in the South China Sea and would take several days if not a week to reach Iran. It is extremely unlikely and incredibly risky to launch strikes against Iran without a carrier - or two - in the region.. https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2010166736775999776
Why is it "incredibly risky"? They could do it from Al Udeid. Launch B-2s from the US. Strongarm Bahrain and Kuwait for access to Isa and Al Jaber by threatening regime change if necessary.
New: A new group - Grassroots Left - has launched a slate of candidates ahead of Your Party’s central executive committee elections. The slate is backed by Your Party co-founder Zarah Sultana and has called for “no more top-down party”.
Nominations for the CEC elections close next week.
Paul Mason @paulmasonnews · 2h Has Zack Polanski said anything about the Iranian revolution ? Anything?
Polanski is a republican, so I doubt he would be too keen on restoring the son of the last Shah to the throne, even if he isn't that keen on the Ayatollahs Iran is a republic with an elected President now
Quite something that the left is largely silent on the brave efforts by Iranians to free themselves from a 46 year old tyrannical nightmare, all because another country they don’t like, Israel, also wants the same outcome.
Hour by hour, the numbers get more horrifying. Medical staff inside Iran report over 3,500 killed and more than 10,000 wounded, just those registered in hospitals. This is a massacre unfolding in Iran https://x.com/AlinejadMasih/status/2010408790378553348
It's a very populous country with a lot of problems and an entrenched, fanatical regime run by decrepit old bigots (ones who have seen some big losses amongst their foreign proxies in the last year) - which suggests sadly the toll could rise much much higher. Even successful revolutions, which most are not, come with a lot of blood spilled.
3,500 is way more than previous uprisings in Iran, I think. If true. 500 killed in the last round of hijab protests.
1,100 killed in the Romanian revolution of 1989, which was the bloodiest in recent European history. “Only” 108 killed in Ukraine’s revolution in 2014.
Something to remember
When the leaders of Iran turn up in the West, demanding asylum, a number of people will demand they are given it.
It will be interesting to compare statements from their parties, organisations, or even themselves (in the case of the older ones) when the progressive types demanded that the Shan of Iran (then very ill) be given no asylum because he was a Bad Man.
Do you think we should accept asylum seekers fleeing this murderous regime or do you think we should send them back?
Iranians are one of the more frequent nations in asylum applications.
Members of the regime, if it falls, should be sent back to face criminal courts in Iran, based on a guarantee of no death penalty & and a fair trial.
And no, "But I'm fucking guilty, so I won't stand a chance in court" isn't a valid argument.
Were you for or against the Shah receiving asylum?
Yes, I had no problem with the Shah fleeing for asylum.
But I was asking about the Iranian asylum seekers fleeing the current regime. Do you think they should be sent back? Or do you support their application?
I do, because they aren't the ones who shouted Death To The West for decades. And they didn't pay some patsies to murder journalists working at Chiswick Park Business Centre - among a long, long list of terrorism around the world, committed by the Iranian government.
As for the members of the regime - Fuck 'em if they can't take their own joke.
I quite like the delicious irony of him begging us for asylum. But that's just me.
Quite something that the left is largely silent on the brave efforts by Iranians to free themselves from a 46 year old tyrannical nightmare, all because another country they don’t like, Israel, also wants the same outcome.
Has Zack Polanski said anything about Venezuela? Has he said anything about Greenland, or does he agree with Badenoch that these are places you can't find on a map and second order issues respectively? He probably hasn't mentioned Angola either...
He seems most interested in talking about himself, which isn't my fascination, but hey ...
Hour by hour, the numbers get more horrifying. Medical staff inside Iran report over 3,500 killed and more than 10,000 wounded, just those registered in hospitals. This is a massacre unfolding in Iran https://x.com/AlinejadMasih/status/2010408790378553348
It's a very populous country with a lot of problems and an entrenched, fanatical regime run by decrepit old bigots (ones who have seen some big losses amongst their foreign proxies in the last year) - which suggests sadly the toll could rise much much higher. Even successful revolutions, which most are not, come with a lot of blood spilled.
3,500 is way more than previous uprisings in Iran, I think. If true. 500 killed in the last round of hijab protests.
1,100 killed in the Romanian revolution of 1989, which was the bloodiest in recent European history. “Only” 108 killed in Ukraine’s revolution in 2014.
Something to remember
When the leaders of Iran turn up in the West, demanding asylum, a number of people will demand they are given it.
It will be interesting to compare statements from their parties, organisations, or even themselves (in the case of the older ones) when the progressive types demanded that the Shan of Iran (then very ill) be given no asylum because he was a Bad Man.
Do you think we should accept asylum seekers fleeing this murderous regime or do you think we should send them back?
Iranians are one of the more frequent nations in asylum applications.
Members of the regime, if it falls, should be sent back to face criminal courts in Iran, based on a guarantee of no death penalty & and a fair trial.
And no, "But I'm fucking guilty, so I won't stand a chance in court" isn't a valid argument.
Were you for or against the Shah receiving asylum?
Yes, I had no problem with the Shah fleeing for asylum.
But I was asking about the Iranian asylum seekers fleeing the current regime. Do you think they should be sent back? Or do you support their application?
I do, because they aren't the ones who shouted Death To The West for decades. And they didn't pay some patsies to murder journalists working at Chiswick Park Business Centre - among a long, long list of terrorism around the world, committed by the Iranian government.
As for the members of the regime - Fuck 'em if they can't take their own joke.
I quite like the delicious irony of him begging us for asylum. But that's just me.
Quite something that the left is largely silent on the brave efforts by Iranians to free themselves from a 46 year old tyrannical nightmare, all because another country they don’t like, Israel, also wants the same outcome.
If the RAF was running surveillance flights to enable Khamenei's tyranny, or conducting mass arrests of those protesting it in London, this would be a fair criticism. Happily, the UK is not doing either of those things.
Well that's a relief. 2035 and we could be back on track in terms of people getting swift trials, just without a jury of their peers.
Maybe the NHS to take note here. If they just turn around to every case and say a nurse will give you a quick once over but otherwise goodbye or even there's nothing we can do for you at all then the wait lists disappear within a few years.
Well that's a relief. 2035 and we could be back on track in terms of people getting swift trials, just without a jury of their peers.
Maybe the NHS to take note here. If they just turn around to every case and say a nurse will give you a quick once over but otherwise goodbye or even there's nothing we can do for you at all then the wait lists disappear within a few years.
Well that is what they are doing legislating the driving test delays.....make it illegal to take your practical for 6 months after theory...problem solved.
Hour by hour, the numbers get more horrifying. Medical staff inside Iran report over 3,500 killed and more than 10,000 wounded, just those registered in hospitals. This is a massacre unfolding in Iran https://x.com/AlinejadMasih/status/2010408790378553348
It's a very populous country with a lot of problems and an entrenched, fanatical regime run by decrepit old bigots (ones who have seen some big losses amongst their foreign proxies in the last year) - which suggests sadly the toll could rise much much higher. Even successful revolutions, which most are not, come with a lot of blood spilled.
Not sure RFK Jr would agree We are living through a golden age of vaccine development.
worksinprogress.co/issue/the…
We can now visualize pathogens down to atoms; design vaccines in weeks; manufacture them in microbial factories; engineer them more precise than ever before.
Quite something that the left is largely silent on the brave efforts by Iranians to free themselves from a 46 year old tyrannical nightmare, all because another country they don’t like, Israel, also wants the same outcome.
The UK government has paid "substantial" compensation to a man who was tortured by the CIA and remains imprisoned without trial at Guantanamo Bay after almost 20 years, the BBC can reveal.
Well that's a relief. 2035 and we could be back on track in terms of people getting swift trials, just without a jury of their peers.
Maybe the NHS to take note here. If they just turn around to every case and say a nurse will give you a quick once over but otherwise goodbye or even there's nothing we can do for you at all then the wait lists disappear within a few years.
Well that is what they are doing legislating the driving test delays.....make it illegal to take your practical for 6 months after theory...problem solved.
You want to hear something funny?
An ex-civil service chap told me that he'd been told by his colleagues still there, that the six month delay was a suggestion by "industry experts"
Obviously hasn't understood the key green tenant of the tragedy of the commons.
I agree with him on the key point there though. You don’t get meaningful progress on cleaning up the planet by appealing to personal morality. Through history pollution and environmental degradation have been most successfully dealt with by regulation. That’s why we don’t have lead based foundation on our faces, unfiltered chimney smoke belching out over your local town, or untreated industrial waste flushed into rivers. Climate charge like most other environmental problems is a problem of industrial waste management.
1,418 days is also the time elapsed between the first German units crossing the border into the Soviet Union at the start of Operation Barbarossa, and the Red Army securing the surrender of Berlin.
In 1,418 days, Soviet units retreated from the frontier, lost Kyiv, Smolensk, Minsk, the Baltic States and all of Ukraine and Belarus, endured one of the most horrific sieges in history at Leningrad and very nearly lost Moscow, then fought back, defeated the Germans (at stunning cost) at Stalingrad and Kursk, and finally pushed the Germans all the way back to Berlin. Ukrainian forces played a key role in that victory.
In 1,418 days, Russian units have advanced from Donetsk city to (squints at map) about 40km west of Donetsk city, has lost ~350,000 soldiers killed, 1 million more injured, captured or deserted, seen between 1 and 2 million of its brightest citizens flee the country, and been reduced to begging such capable economies as Iran and North Korea for aid. And it has failed to seize a single major Ukrainian city (the only one that came close it lost again, almost immediately). It has also somehow doubled the size of the Ukrainian army and helped Ukraine equip itself with F-16s, Mirages, HIMARS artillery, Abrams, Challenger and Leopard main battle tanks, and a couple million drones. It has also added two new, powerful militaries to NATO, more than doubled the length of its direct border with NATO, and exhausted almost the entirety of Russia's strategic reserve of tanks, artillery and infantry fighting vehicles. It has also performed an impressive feat of economic wizardry in that its economy is now propped up by military spending, so if the war ends, the Russian economy may simply collapse, but if it keeps fighting, the Russian economy may also just implode.
Ukraine has endured terrible losses of civilian and military life, and massive disruption to its economy. But it's also gained a sense of purpose and identity in the conflict. It has proven itself on the world stage, and woken up Europe to a threat it should have really perceived a decade ago, at the latest. It remains in danger, cities remain in darkness and the cold because the Russians can somehow hit a power transformer outside Kyiv but not a military target of any significant value, and there are areas of danger on the front. But if they can outlast the Russian war effort, continue some very impressive (if only idiotically necessary) diplomatic footwork with the Americans and keep up the fight, the Russians will be forced to stop, and if the Russian position collapses, Ukraine could still retake a lot of its land.
I suspect Stalin would, by this juncture, just have had Putin shot out of hand.
The UK government has paid "substantial" compensation to a man who was tortured by the CIA and remains imprisoned without trial at Guantanamo Bay after almost 20 years, the BBC can reveal.
The UK government has paid "substantial" compensation to a man who was tortured by the CIA and remains imprisoned without trial at Guantanamo Bay after almost 20 years, the BBC can reveal.
I presume we will find out the last government agreed a settlement of £10 million, and the new government went hard and renegiotated a new settlement of £50 million plus the Isle of Skye and the ability to have 50 of his friends and family come to the UK under a resettlement programme.
Quite something that the left is largely silent on the brave efforts by Iranians to free themselves from a 46 year old tyrannical nightmare, all because another country they don’t like, Israel, also wants the same outcome.
I thought his crew didn't believe in virtue signalling ?
Everyone believes in virtue signalling - despite being a pejorative label, it's perfectly ok to signal your virtues, even if the phrase is usually associated with a particular, annoying style of doing so. However, that style is not partisan.
Likewise, I think great strides have been made in the last few years accepting that right wingers are equally as capable as being snowflakes as those on the left.
Peter Mandleson’s “I saw nothing” defence is no different than Russell Crowes at the Nuremberg Trials. Which I saw yesterday and thought was quite good.
Russell Crowe was at the Nuremberg Trials???
I thought it was him, because it looked a lot like him. On the other hand he was speaking a lot of German, and he must be much older than that in real life now, so it probably was an actual German, because his English wasn’t very good when he tried to speak it. I enjoyed the film, on the yardstick it didn’t feel as though it went on as long as it actually did.
Nuremberg is far better movie than One Battle After Another. The Nuremberg script and acting being strong points, generated characters that felt like they could even be real people; direction being its weak points, there wasn’t direction just Art Direction - in that sense it’s nearly as ludicrous and awful as Se7en was badly directed. One Battle After Another has pace for the first two thirds, and is watchable, but for the last third of the film the pace dies and it becomes contrived and awful cop out piece of storytelling. Horrid movie.
That might sound a bit full of myself and negative about others hard work. I can flag a few things I have recently enjoyed.
The Return is best new movie I’ve seen recently - Ralph Fiennes Odysseus returning home after the long war is the best “Superhero” movie yet made IMO. I also thought Spinal Tap II better than its midling reviews, because it’s dry and subtle comedy works all the way through, the lines they give the cameo guests are very funny. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so I will say SPOILER but instead of a Mini Stonehenge they now have a massive one and it falls on top of Elton John. It also worked because they are genuinely old, the sense of time they are playing with is a real one. I hope they don’t make the planned last one, if they do they need to get the drummer and her fiancé back as they were great! But they left it with her life in the hands of the man who may have been killed by his son.
Peter Mandleson’s “I saw nothing” defence is no different than Russell Crowes at the Nuremberg Trials. Which I saw yesterday and thought was quite good.
Russell Crowe was at the Nuremberg Trials???
I thought it was him, because it looked a lot like him. On the other hand he was speaking a lot of German, and he must be much older than that in real life now, so it probably was an actual German, because his English wasn’t very good when he tried to speak it. I enjoyed the film, on the yardstick it didn’t feel as though it went on as long as it actually did.
Nuremberg is far better movie than One Battle After Another. The Nuremberg script and acting being strong points, generated characters that felt like they could even be real people; direction being its weak points, there wasn’t direction just Art Direction - in that sense it’s nearly as ludicrous and awful as Se7en was badly directed. One Battle After Another has pace for the first two thirds, and is watchable, but for the last third of the film the pace dies and it becomes contrived and awful cop out piece of storytelling. Horrid movie.
That might sound a bit full of myself and negative about others hard work. I can flag a few things I have recently enjoyed.
The Return is best new movie I’ve seen recently - Ralph Fiennes Odysseus returning home after the long war is the best “Superhero” movie yet made IMO. I also thought Spinal Tap II better than its midling reviews, because it’s dry and subtle comedy works all the way through, the lines they give the cameo guests are very funny. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so I will say SPOILER but instead of a Mini Stonehenge they now have a massive one and it falls on top of Elton John. It also worked because they are genuinely old, the sense of time they are playing with is a real one. I hope they don’t make the planned last one, if they do they need to get the drummer and her fiancé back as they were great! But they left it with her life in the hands of the man who may have been killed by his son.
I also finally caught up with watching The Stone Tape, it’s on YouTube, and that was very good. They crumpled up digital/magnet tape saying it’s too fragile it’s out of date - that point was ahead of its time. And when the two red blobs like eyes appeared out of nowhere being the actual dangerous thing what was below the top recordings, it was a bit creepy.
1,418 days is also the time elapsed between the first German units crossing the border into the Soviet Union at the start of Operation Barbarossa, and the Red Army securing the surrender of Berlin.
In 1,418 days, Soviet units retreated from the frontier, lost Kyiv, Smolensk, Minsk, the Baltic States and all of Ukraine and Belarus, endured one of the most horrific sieges in history at Leningrad and very nearly lost Moscow, then fought back, defeated the Germans (at stunning cost) at Stalingrad and Kursk, and finally pushed the Germans all the way back to Berlin. Ukrainian forces played a key role in that victory.
In 1,418 days, Russian units have advanced from Donetsk city to (squints at map) about 40km west of Donetsk city, has lost ~350,000 soldiers killed, 1 million more injured, captured or deserted, seen between 1 and 2 million of its brightest citizens flee the country, and been reduced to begging such capable economies as Iran and North Korea for aid. And it has failed to seize a single major Ukrainian city (the only one that came close it lost again, almost immediately). It has also somehow doubled the size of the Ukrainian army and helped Ukraine equip itself with F-16s, Mirages, HIMARS artillery, Abrams, Challenger and Leopard main battle tanks, and a couple million drones. It has also added two new, powerful militaries to NATO, more than doubled the length of its direct border with NATO, and exhausted almost the entirety of Russia's strategic reserve of tanks, artillery and infantry fighting vehicles. It has also performed an impressive feat of economic wizardry in that its economy is now propped up by military spending, so if the war ends, the Russian economy may simply collapse, but if it keeps fighting, the Russian economy may also just implode.
Ukraine has endured terrible losses of civilian and military life, and massive disruption to its economy. But it's also gained a sense of purpose and identity in the conflict. It has proven itself on the world stage, and woken up Europe to a threat it should have really perceived a decade ago, at the latest. It remains in danger, cities remain in darkness and the cold because the Russians can somehow hit a power transformer outside Kyiv but not a military target of any significant value, and there are areas of danger on the front. But if they can outlast the Russian war effort, continue some very impressive (if only idiotically necessary) diplomatic footwork with the Americans and keep up the fight, the Russians will be forced to stop, and if the Russian position collapses, Ukraine could still retake a lot of its land.
I suspect Stalin would, by this juncture, just have had Putin shot out of hand.
"But Tsar Alexander made it all the way to Paris!" - Stalin, 1945, referring to Alexander I's chase of Napoleon all the way from Moscow to Paris between 1812 and 1814.
Senior MPs are preparing to tell the home secretary to sack the chief constable of West Midlands police after concluding that he “misled parliament” over the decision to ban Israeli football fans from a match in Birmingham
Members of the home affairs select committee are understood to be “unanimous in their disappointment” at the evidence given by the force, with several believing it had “retrospectively gathered evidence to suit their decision making
Pressure is mounting on Craig Guildford, the West Midlands chief constable, to go after Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were barred from travelling to the game at Villa Park in November by the local Safety Advisory Group (SAG)
One MP told The Times that sacking Guildford would be “the nuclear option” but said there was now “no other option” if their suspicions were confirmed that the force had given a misleading account
They said: “I do believe strongly in the principle of police operational independence, but when you’ve got a community that’s lost all faith in its police force, and the potential that they have misled parliament, and it’s looking that way at the moment, then I don’t see any other option for the home secretary.”
The home secretary cannot directly sack Guildford but she can set in motion the process that leads to his removal by publicly withdrawing confidence and writing to the police and crime commissioner (PCC) asking him to consider suspension and dismissal
I saw a recent letter from a PCC who lamented how difficult it could be to fire a Chief Constable, with them also usually just moving on to another high profile job instead (not an unfamiliar problem in this country, once you know the right people and have had one decent position), but if they can prove misleading parliament you'd hope that would be sufficient.
"retrospectively gathered evidence to suit their decision making" feels like a euphemism, even though it is probably literally correct.
My sister, when working as a fairly senior civil service statistician for one of the devolved governments frequently lamented to me that her ministers tended to see her as a service for "decision based evidence making" rather than the other way round.
Apparently they frequently got very upset when she explained she had to publish the results of various studies they'd asked for, regardless of whether or not they liked the conclusions; it seems her ministers weren't nearly as good as they thought they were at setting the terms of reference for the various studies they requested to get the "right" outcomes.
Quite something that the left is largely silent on the brave efforts by Iranians to free themselves from a 46 year old tyrannical nightmare, all because another country they don’t like, Israel, also wants the same outcome.
I thought his crew didn't believe in virtue signalling ?
Everyone believes in virtue signalling - despite being a pejorative label, it's perfectly ok to signal your virtues, even if the phrase is usually associated with a particular, annoying style of doing so. However, that style is not partisan.
Likewise, I think great strides have been made in the last few years accepting that right wingers are equally as capable as being snowflakes as those on the left.
Even greater strides have been made in virtue signalling about the virtue signalling of those virtue signalling about virtue signalling.... {no carrier.......}
Well that's a relief. 2035 and we could be back on track in terms of people getting swift trials, just without a jury of their peers.
Maybe the NHS to take note here. If they just turn around to every case and say a nurse will give you a quick once over but otherwise goodbye or even there's nothing we can do for you at all then the wait lists disappear within a few years.
Well that is what they are doing legislating the driving test delays.....make it illegal to take your practical for 6 months after theory...problem solved.
You want to hear something funny?
An ex-civil service chap told me that he'd been told by his colleagues still there, that the six month delay was a suggestion by "industry experts"
That's right. The driving school companies.....
Really! I'm sure that their only concern is the welfare of new drivers, and their motives pure as the driven snow.
The biggest losers from the change will be farm kids, most of whom will have been driving heavy machinery since primary school, and driving tractors on the road since close to their 16th birthday (if not before - I've known plenty of farm kids not worry too much about a licence for short distances on the road). I went to a rural school, several farm kids in the 6th form passed their driving test on their 17th birthday.
But if there is a group of people Starmer seems to particularly hate, farmers kids are going to be up there...
1,418 days is also the time elapsed between the first German units crossing the border into the Soviet Union at the start of Operation Barbarossa, and the Red Army securing the surrender of Berlin.
In 1,418 days, Soviet units retreated from the frontier, lost Kyiv, Smolensk, Minsk, the Baltic States and all of Ukraine and Belarus, endured one of the most horrific sieges in history at Leningrad and very nearly lost Moscow, then fought back, defeated the Germans (at stunning cost) at Stalingrad and Kursk, and finally pushed the Germans all the way back to Berlin. Ukrainian forces played a key role in that victory.
In 1,418 days, Russian units have advanced from Donetsk city to (squints at map) about 40km west of Donetsk city, has lost ~350,000 soldiers killed, 1 million more injured, captured or deserted, seen between 1 and 2 million of its brightest citizens flee the country, and been reduced to begging such capable economies as Iran and North Korea for aid. And it has failed to seize a single major Ukrainian city (the only one that came close it lost again, almost immediately). It has also somehow doubled the size of the Ukrainian army and helped Ukraine equip itself with F-16s, Mirages, HIMARS artillery, Abrams, Challenger and Leopard main battle tanks, and a couple million drones. It has also added two new, powerful militaries to NATO, more than doubled the length of its direct border with NATO, and exhausted almost the entirety of Russia's strategic reserve of tanks, artillery and infantry fighting vehicles. It has also performed an impressive feat of economic wizardry in that its economy is now propped up by military spending, so if the war ends, the Russian economy may simply collapse, but if it keeps fighting, the Russian economy may also just implode.
Ukraine has endured terrible losses of civilian and military life, and massive disruption to its economy. But it's also gained a sense of purpose and identity in the conflict. It has proven itself on the world stage, and woken up Europe to a threat it should have really perceived a decade ago, at the latest. It remains in danger, cities remain in darkness and the cold because the Russians can somehow hit a power transformer outside Kyiv but not a military target of any significant value, and there are areas of danger on the front. But if they can outlast the Russian war effort, continue some very impressive (if only idiotically necessary) diplomatic footwork with the Americans and keep up the fight, the Russians will be forced to stop, and if the Russian position collapses, Ukraine could still retake a lot of its land.
I suspect Stalin would, by this juncture, just have had Putin shot out of hand.
"But Tsar Alexander made it all the way to Paris!" - Stalin, 1945, referring to Alexander I's chase of Napoleon all the way from Moscow to Paris between 1812 and 1814.
Did he do that for the shopping?
I’ve recently watched War and Peace and they didn’t go to Paris. I watched a 1960’s film of War & Peace.
Well that's a relief. 2035 and we could be back on track in terms of people getting swift trials, just without a jury of their peers.
Maybe the NHS to take note here. If they just turn around to every case and say a nurse will give you a quick once over but otherwise goodbye or even there's nothing we can do for you at all then the wait lists disappear within a few years.
Well that is what they are doing legislating the driving test delays.....make it illegal to take your practical for 6 months after theory...problem solved.
You want to hear something funny?
An ex-civil service chap told me that he'd been told by his colleagues still there, that the six month delay was a suggestion by "industry experts"
That's right. The driving school companies.....
Really! I'm sure that their only concern is the welfare of new drivers, and their motives pure as the driven snow.
The biggest losers from the change will be farm kids, most of whom will have been driving heavy machinery since primary school, and driving tractors on the road since close to their 16th birthday (if not before - I've known plenty of farm kids not worry too much about a licence for short distances on the road). I went to a rural school, several farm kids in the 6th form passed their driving test on their 17th birthday.
But if there is a group of people Starmer seems to particularly hate, farmers kids are going to be up there...
I remember when Blair was puzzled at the reaction to IR35 - “But the big consultancy companies are all in favour?”
Looking at the trendlines - Lab - Green Crossover in March. The decline in the Ref share appears to have bottomed out and is starting to trend back up at the expense of the Tories.
Farage PM, Polanski Leader of the Opposition would certainly make for an interesting parliament. Although if Farage "fails", I fancy a Polanski government the following term less than even one run by Corbyn.
Peter Mandleson’s “I saw nothing” defence is no different than Russell Crowes at the Nuremberg Trials. Which I saw yesterday and thought was quite good.
Russell Crowe was at the Nuremberg Trials???
I thought it was him, because it looked a lot like him. On the other hand he was speaking a lot of German, and he must be much older than that in real life now, so it probably was an actual German, because his English wasn’t very good when he tried to speak it. I enjoyed the film, on the yardstick it didn’t feel as though it went on as long as it actually did.
Nuremberg is far better movie than One Battle After Another. The Nuremberg script and acting being strong points, generated characters that felt like they could even be real people; direction being its weak points, there wasn’t direction just Art Direction - in that sense it’s nearly as ludicrous and awful as Se7en was badly directed. One Battle After Another has pace for the first two thirds, and is watchable, but for the last third of the film the pace dies and it becomes contrived and awful cop out piece of storytelling. Horrid movie.
That might sound a bit full of myself and negative about others hard work. I can flag a few things I have recently enjoyed.
The Return is best new movie I’ve seen recently - Ralph Fiennes Odysseus returning home after the long war is the best “Superhero” movie yet made IMO. I also thought Spinal Tap II better than its midling reviews, because it’s dry and subtle comedy works all the way through, the lines they give the cameo guests are very funny. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so I will say SPOILER but instead of a Mini Stonehenge they now have a massive one and it falls on top of Elton John. It also worked because they are genuinely old, the sense of time they are playing with is a real one. I hope they don’t make the planned last one, if they do they need to get the drummer and her fiancé back as they were great! But they left it with her life in the hands of the man who may have been killed by his son.
I also finally caught up with watching The Stone Tape, it’s on YouTube, and that was very good. They crumpled up digital/magnet tape saying it’s too fragile it’s out of date - that point was ahead of its time. And when the two red blobs like eyes appeared out of nowhere being the actual dangerous thing what was below the top recordings, it was a bit creepy.
1,418 days is also the time elapsed between the first German units crossing the border into the Soviet Union at the start of Operation Barbarossa, and the Red Army securing the surrender of Berlin.
In 1,418 days, Soviet units retreated from the frontier, lost Kyiv, Smolensk, Minsk, the Baltic States and all of Ukraine and Belarus, endured one of the most horrific sieges in history at Leningrad and very nearly lost Moscow, then fought back, defeated the Germans (at stunning cost) at Stalingrad and Kursk, and finally pushed the Germans all the way back to Berlin. Ukrainian forces played a key role in that victory.
In 1,418 days, Russian units have advanced from Donetsk city to (squints at map) about 40km west of Donetsk city, has lost ~350,000 soldiers killed, 1 million more injured, captured or deserted, seen between 1 and 2 million of its brightest citizens flee the country, and been reduced to begging such capable economies as Iran and North Korea for aid. And it has failed to seize a single major Ukrainian city (the only one that came close it lost again, almost immediately). It has also somehow doubled the size of the Ukrainian army and helped Ukraine equip itself with F-16s, Mirages, HIMARS artillery, Abrams, Challenger and Leopard main battle tanks, and a couple million drones. It has also added two new, powerful militaries to NATO, more than doubled the length of its direct border with NATO, and exhausted almost the entirety of Russia's strategic reserve of tanks, artillery and infantry fighting vehicles. It has also performed an impressive feat of economic wizardry in that its economy is now propped up by military spending, so if the war ends, the Russian economy may simply collapse, but if it keeps fighting, the Russian economy may also just implode.
Ukraine has endured terrible losses of civilian and military life, and massive disruption to its economy. But it's also gained a sense of purpose and identity in the conflict. It has proven itself on the world stage, and woken up Europe to a threat it should have really perceived a decade ago, at the latest. It remains in danger, cities remain in darkness and the cold because the Russians can somehow hit a power transformer outside Kyiv but not a military target of any significant value, and there are areas of danger on the front. But if they can outlast the Russian war effort, continue some very impressive (if only idiotically necessary) diplomatic footwork with the Americans and keep up the fight, the Russians will be forced to stop, and if the Russian position collapses, Ukraine could still retake a lot of its land.
I suspect Stalin would, by this juncture, just have had Putin shot out of hand.
"But Tsar Alexander made it all the way to Paris!" - Stalin, 1945, referring to Alexander I's chase of Napoleon all the way from Moscow to Paris between 1812 and 1814.
It is the (now) old joke about Putin consulting the ghost of Stalin on how he should counter the loss of Russian territory – send in your best Ukrainian troops and beg the West for weapons.
Well that's a relief. 2035 and we could be back on track in terms of people getting swift trials, just without a jury of their peers.
Maybe the NHS to take note here. If they just turn around to every case and say a nurse will give you a quick once over but otherwise goodbye or even there's nothing we can do for you at all then the wait lists disappear within a few years.
Well that is what they are doing legislating the driving test delays.....make it illegal to take your practical for 6 months after theory...problem solved.
You want to hear something funny?
An ex-civil service chap told me that he'd been told by his colleagues still there, that the six month delay was a suggestion by "industry experts"
That's right. The driving school companies.....
Really! I'm sure that their only concern is the welfare of new drivers, and their motives pure as the driven snow.
The biggest losers from the change will be farm kids, most of whom will have been driving heavy machinery since primary school, and driving tractors on the road since close to their 16th birthday (if not before - I've known plenty of farm kids not worry too much about a licence for short distances on the road). I went to a rural school, several farm kids in the 6th form passed their driving test on their 17th birthday.
But if there is a group of people Starmer seems to particularly hate, farmers kids are going to be up there...
Quite something that the left is largely silent on the brave efforts by Iranians to free themselves from a 46 year old tyrannical nightmare, all because another country they don’t like, Israel, also wants the same outcome.
Keep up everyone. If you've not got reporters on the ground, the next best thing is having the inhabitants tell you what's happening. So long as it's not Gaza!
Peter Mandleson’s “I saw nothing” defence is no different than Russell Crowes at the Nuremberg Trials. Which I saw yesterday and thought was quite good.
Russell Crowe was at the Nuremberg Trials???
I thought it was him, because it looked a lot like him. On the other hand he was speaking a lot of German, and he must be much older than that in real life now, so it probably was an actual German, because his English wasn’t very good when he tried to speak it. I enjoyed the film, on the yardstick it didn’t feel as though it went on as long as it actually did.
Nuremberg is far better movie than One Battle After Another. The Nuremberg script and acting being strong points, generated characters that felt like they could even be real people; direction being its weak points, there wasn’t direction just Art Direction - in that sense it’s nearly as ludicrous and awful as Se7en was badly directed. One Battle After Another has pace for the first two thirds, and is watchable, but for the last third of the film the pace dies and it becomes contrived and awful cop out piece of storytelling. Horrid movie.
That might sound a bit full of myself and negative about others hard work. I can flag a few things I have recently enjoyed.
The Return is best new movie I’ve seen recently - Ralph Fiennes Odysseus returning home after the long war is the best “Superhero” movie yet made IMO. I also thought Spinal Tap II better than its midling reviews, because it’s dry and subtle comedy works all the way through, the lines they give the cameo guests are very funny. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so I will say SPOILER but instead of a Mini Stonehenge they now have a massive one and it falls on top of Elton John. It also worked because they are genuinely old, the sense of time they are playing with is a real one. I hope they don’t make the planned last one, if they do they need to get the drummer and her fiancé back as they were great! But they left it with her life in the hands of the man who may have been killed by his son.
I also finally caught up with watching The Stone Tape, it’s on YouTube, and that was very good. They crumpled up digital/magnet tape saying it’s too fragile it’s out of date - that point was ahead of its time. And when the two red blobs like eyes appeared out of nowhere being the actual dangerous thing what was below the top recordings, it was a bit creepy.
1,418 days is also the time elapsed between the first German units crossing the border into the Soviet Union at the start of Operation Barbarossa, and the Red Army securing the surrender of Berlin.
In 1,418 days, Soviet units retreated from the frontier, lost Kyiv, Smolensk, Minsk, the Baltic States and all of Ukraine and Belarus, endured one of the most horrific sieges in history at Leningrad and very nearly lost Moscow, then fought back, defeated the Germans (at stunning cost) at Stalingrad and Kursk, and finally pushed the Germans all the way back to Berlin. Ukrainian forces played a key role in that victory.
In 1,418 days, Russian units have advanced from Donetsk city to (squints at map) about 40km west of Donetsk city, has lost ~350,000 soldiers killed, 1 million more injured, captured or deserted, seen between 1 and 2 million of its brightest citizens flee the country, and been reduced to begging such capable economies as Iran and North Korea for aid. And it has failed to seize a single major Ukrainian city (the only one that came close it lost again, almost immediately). It has also somehow doubled the size of the Ukrainian army and helped Ukraine equip itself with F-16s, Mirages, HIMARS artillery, Abrams, Challenger and Leopard main battle tanks, and a couple million drones. It has also added two new, powerful militaries to NATO, more than doubled the length of its direct border with NATO, and exhausted almost the entirety of Russia's strategic reserve of tanks, artillery and infantry fighting vehicles. It has also performed an impressive feat of economic wizardry in that its economy is now propped up by military spending, so if the war ends, the Russian economy may simply collapse, but if it keeps fighting, the Russian economy may also just implode.
Ukraine has endured terrible losses of civilian and military life, and massive disruption to its economy. But it's also gained a sense of purpose and identity in the conflict. It has proven itself on the world stage, and woken up Europe to a threat it should have really perceived a decade ago, at the latest. It remains in danger, cities remain in darkness and the cold because the Russians can somehow hit a power transformer outside Kyiv but not a military target of any significant value, and there are areas of danger on the front. But if they can outlast the Russian war effort, continue some very impressive (if only idiotically necessary) diplomatic footwork with the Americans and keep up the fight, the Russians will be forced to stop, and if the Russian position collapses, Ukraine could still retake a lot of its land.
I suspect Stalin would, by this juncture, just have had Putin shot out of hand.
"But Tsar Alexander made it all the way to Paris!" - Stalin, 1945, referring to Alexander I's chase of Napoleon all the way from Moscow to Paris between 1812 and 1814.
Did he do that for the shopping?
I’ve recently watched War and Peace and they didn’t go to Paris. I watched a 1960’s film of War & Peace.
US justice department opens criminal probe into Fed chair Jerome Powell
Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, he said on Sunday.
In a video announcing the probe, Powell said the US justice department served the agency with subpoenas and threatened a criminal indictment over testimony he gave to a Senate committee about renovations to Federal Reserve buildings.
He called the probe "unprecedented" and said he believed it was opened due to him drawing President Donald Trump's ire over refusing to lower interest rates despite repeated public pressure from the president.
US justice department opens criminal probe into Fed chair Jerome Powell
Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, he said on Sunday.
In a video announcing the probe, Powell said the US justice department served the agency with subpoenas and threatened a criminal indictment over testimony he gave to a Senate committee about renovations to Federal Reserve buildings.
He called the probe "unprecedented" and said he believed it was opened due to him drawing President Donald Trump's ire over refusing to lower interest rates despite repeated public pressure from the president.
It's funny isn't it: all those people -like Jim Jordan- who were really worried about the criminalization of the criminal justice system suddenly don't seem so concerned about it now.
Archaeologists have discovered the largest Roman villa ever found in Wales in an "amazing discovery" which they say has the potential to be "Port Talbot's Pompeii". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgk8j1gkxelo
New: A new group - Grassroots Left - has launched a slate of candidates ahead of Your Party’s central executive committee elections. The slate is backed by Your Party co-founder Zarah Sultana and has called for “no more top-down party”.
Nominations for the CEC elections close next week.
Archaeologists have discovered the largest Roman villa ever found in Wales in an "amazing discovery" which they say has the potential to be "Port Talbot's Pompeii". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgk8j1gkxelo
Shuttered my personal Twitter account. Too many worms eating into my brain. Will just use my YouTube Twitter profile.
Did have a brief look over at BlueSky. What a waste of time that place is...
At the end of the day, a platform is as interesting as the people you follow. Because BlueSky largely doesn't employ an algorithm, you have to find those people yourself according to your interests and your assessment of their worth. If you don't put that small amount of effort in it won't be interesting. There are starter packs of recommended commentators that help.
In my case I follow enough interesting commentators to make it worthwhile, mostly on history, art and international relations, rather than politics.
Bluesky totally has an algorithm, it's called Discover. It's not very good. But the great thing about Bluesky is that anybody can make their own algorithm and anyone can easily add it to their client. A few good general-purpose ones (as opposed to niche things like goat poster feeds):
Mutuals: My mutuals feed is much smarter than my following feed. I'm not sure if this will work for everybody, it may be because I have a slight crypto reference in my bio which repels the left-reactionary types that the site has more of than it needs even if I'm foolish enough to follow them https://bsky.app/profile/skyfeed.xyz/feed/mutuals
Quiet Posters: This is incredibly useful. People you follow, who don't post much. Often what these people do post is high quality and you don't want to miss it https://bsky.app/profile/why.bsky.team/feed/infreq
Let's get rid of Ineos? The failure of Man Utd (they can win no silverware this term after being knocked out of the FA Cup yesterday, and might finish in the bottom half of the table) since Ineos billionaire Jim Ratcliffe took over with his DOGE tribute act of random cuts to the backroom staff has severely tested the notion that top businessmen achieved their wealth using transferrable skills rather than sheer dumb luck.
Thom Tillis (retiring GOP senator) who is also on the Senate Banking Committee:
"I will oppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed—including the upcoming Fed Chair vacancy—until this legal matter is fully resolved.”
I asked Claude and it says that if the Senate won't confirm a replacement, the current chair continues to serve in the interim. So potentially Jay Powell gets to stay on after his term is up...
Thom Tillis (retiring GOP senator) who is also on the Senate Banking Committee:
"I will oppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed—including the upcoming Fed Chair vacancy—until this legal matter is fully resolved.”
I asked Claude and it says that if the Senate won't confirm a replacement, the current chair continues to serve in the interim. So potentially Jay Powell gets to stay on after his term is up...
Malicious compliance would be be an interesting anti-MAGA Republican tactic. These midterms are already shaping up to be the most consequential in American history. The House may already be slipping from Trump's control... could it be the Dems get 60 in the Senate?
Thom Tillis (retiring GOP senator) who is also on the Senate Banking Committee:
"I will oppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed—including the upcoming Fed Chair vacancy—until this legal matter is fully resolved.”
I asked Claude and it says that if the Senate won't confirm a replacement, the current chair continues to serve in the interim. So potentially Jay Powell gets to stay on after his term is up...
Malicious compliance would be be an interesting anti-MAGA Republican tactic. These midterms are already shaping up to be the most consequential in American history. The House may already be slipping from Trump's control... could it be the Dems get 60 in the Senate?
IIUC they can't get to 51 without some heroic pickups like Texas or Iowa, I can't begin to imagine how they'd get to 60. They're doing well in special elections but nowhere near that well.
No US carrier in the region as the only onIsa e there was redeployed to the Caribbean in November.
Reminder that there is not a single U.S. Carrier Strike Group currently deployed to the Middle East, and the closest carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), is in the South China Sea and would take several days if not a week to reach Iran. It is extremely unlikely and incredibly risky to launch strikes against Iran without a carrier - or two - in the region.. https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2010166736775999776
Why is it "incredibly risky"? They could do it from Al Udeid. Launch B-2s from the US. Strongarm Bahrain and Kuwait for access to Isa and Al Jaber by threatening regime change if necessary.
And surely that is why we pay for them to have a military base on Diego Garcia.
The UK government has paid "substantial" compensation to a man who was tortured by the CIA and remains imprisoned without trial at Guantanamo Bay after almost 20 years, the BBC can reveal.
All he has to do is to turn up in Whitehall and collect his compensation.
That will have gone to be controlled or drawn on by his lawyer at his instruction, I assume? Why did this take 19 years?
His torture regime by the US authorities (waterboarding, simulated drowning etc) reminds me of aspects of the accounts in The White Rabbit, by a FFE Yeo-Thomas in wartime Paris, of how he was tortured by the Gestapo.
A salutary reminder that it is not just the Trump regime in the USA that treats law and people with contempt. This was Bush and Obama, too. And Biden for continuing to hold him in a black prison. Trump has taken it much, much further.
I'm sure we all remember the Jurisdictional games they played with Guantanamo - 'But it's not the USA so he does not have rights".
I'll be interested to see how our far right / populist media and influencers react to this (not referring to anyone on PB to be clear). At present they are wetting themselves over Musk vs (allegedly) Starmer, and Anna Paulina Luna.
Thom Tillis (retiring GOP senator) who is also on the Senate Banking Committee:
"I will oppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed—including the upcoming Fed Chair vacancy—until this legal matter is fully resolved.”
I asked Claude and it says that if the Senate won't confirm a replacement, the current chair continues to serve in the interim. So potentially Jay Powell gets to stay on after his term is up...
Malicious compliance would be be an interesting anti-MAGA Republican tactic. These midterms are already shaping up to be the most consequential in American history. The House may already be slipping from Trump's control... could it be the Dems get 60 in the Senate?
Now a snowball's chance in hell.
Remember only a third are even up for election and it is not favourable to the (D) as these are the ones last elected when Trump was last POTUS and Biden won.
Hour by hour, the numbers get more horrifying. Medical staff inside Iran report over 3,500 killed and more than 10,000 wounded, just those registered in hospitals. This is a massacre unfolding in Iran https://x.com/AlinejadMasih/status/2010408790378553348
It's terrible. I still haven't seen any real analysis of what the alternative leadership is.
To overthrow the regime, I suspect clarity on that would be needed.
The correct translation is 'One People, One Homeland, One Leader.'
Are they so thick they don't even speak basic German?
Even the last line – Remember who you are, American – is reminiscent of Deutschland Uber Alles which promoted a German identity over the recently unified states.
The UK government has paid "substantial" compensation to a man who was tortured by the CIA and remains imprisoned without trial at Guantanamo Bay after almost 20 years, the BBC can reveal.
All he has to do is to turn up in Whitehall and collect his compensation.
That will have gone to be controlled or drawn on by his lawyer at his instruction, I assume? Why did this take 19 years?
His torture regime by the US authorities (waterboarding, simulated drowning etc) reminds me of aspects of the accounts in The White Rabbit, by a FFE Yeo-Thomas in wartime Paris, of how he was tortured by the Gestapo.
A salutary reminder that it is not just the Trump regime in the USA that treats law and people with contempt. This was Bush and Obama, too. And Biden for continuing to hold him in a black prison. Trump has taken it much, much further.
I'm sure we all remember the Jurisdictional games they played with Guantanamo - 'But it's not the USA so he does not have rights".
I'll be interested to see how our far right / populist media and influencers react to this (not referring to anyone on PB to be clear). At present they are wetting themselves over Musk vs (allegedly) Starmer, and Anna Paulina Luna.
The Golden Globes showed once more Keir Starmer has his finger on the cultural pulse of the nation with the following winners in the television section:-
Best limited series WINNER: Adolescence Best actor, limited series WINNER: Stephen Graham – Adolescence Best supporting actress (television) WINNER: Erin Doherty – Adolescence Best supporting actor (television) WINNER: Owen Cooper – Adolescence https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwygn18nyllo
Hour by hour, the numbers get more horrifying. Medical staff inside Iran report over 3,500 killed and more than 10,000 wounded, just those registered in hospitals. This is a massacre unfolding in Iran https://x.com/AlinejadMasih/status/2010408790378553348
It's terrible. I still haven't seen any real analysis of what the alternative leadership is.
To overthrow the regime, I suspect clarity on that would be needed.
Ever since the Arab Spring failed to blossom, I've given up predicting how popular uprisings end up.
When the President turns his "Justice" Department on you to bring criminal charges for contradicting him, you're no longer a functioning democracy.
Some countries that have prosecuted or threatened to prosecute central bankers for the purpose of political intimidation or punishment for monetary policy decisions: Argentina, Russia, Turkey, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. https://x.com/jasonfurman/status/2010532384924442645
Hour by hour, the numbers get more horrifying. Medical staff inside Iran report over 3,500 killed and more than 10,000 wounded, just those registered in hospitals. This is a massacre unfolding in Iran https://x.com/AlinejadMasih/status/2010408790378553348
It's terrible. I still haven't seen any real analysis of what the alternative leadership is.
To overthrow the regime, I suspect clarity on that would be needed.
Ever since the Arab Spring failed to blossom, I've given up predicting how popular uprisings end up.
There's so little information on what is going on that it is very hard to predict what Iran would look like if the current regime does fall.
At the very least I would expect a loss of interest in overseas issues and a concentration on internal affairs and the economy. Collapse into Libyan style anarchy is very possible.
Comments
For a minute I thought he meant Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine
But I was asking about the Iranian asylum seekers fleeing the current regime. Do you think they should be sent back? Or do you support their application?
Reminder that there is not a single U.S. Carrier Strike Group currently deployed to the Middle East, and the closest carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), is in the South China Sea and would take several days if not a week to reach Iran. It is extremely unlikely and incredibly risky to launch strikes against Iran without a carrier - or two - in the region..
https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2010166736775999776
'Four great men - Nigel Farage, Rupert Lowe, Ben Habib and Tommy Robinson, need to get together to reconcile over a pint, and Make Britain Great Again.'
As for the members of the regime - Fuck 'em if they can't take their own joke.
megan kenyon
@meganekenyon
New: A new group - Grassroots Left - has launched a slate of candidates ahead of Your Party’s central executive committee elections. The slate is backed by Your Party co-founder Zarah Sultana and has called for “no more top-down party”.
Nominations for the CEC elections close next week.
https://x.com/meganekenyon/status/2010446184180265262
@JakeSherman
THE NEXT MINIBUS is out
Financial Services and General Government and National Security and State
@sn_handler
No Homeland Security funding bill, which was originally supposed to be in the package.
https://x.com/sn_handler/status/2010475743159939525?s=20
Brendan May
@bmay
Quite something that the left is largely silent on the brave efforts by Iranians to free themselves from a 46 year old tyrannical nightmare, all because another country they don’t like, Israel, also wants the same outcome.
These are not serious people.https://x.com/bmay/status/2010434514615480478
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSCHAr1e_QU
"...Zazou, what you gonna do?
There’s a lot of people gunning for you
Zazou, comment allez-vous?
A knock on the door in the night..."
He seems most interested in talking about himself, which isn't my fascination, but hey ...
The White House
@WhiteHouse
We have three things to say...
GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS.
GOD BLESS AMERICA.
AND WE ARE JUST GETTING STARTED. 🦅
https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2010454233704001740
You can fly, drive, eat meat and still be green - The leader of the Greens wants to widen his party’s appeal.
Just blame the oil majors that supply you with planet destroying fuel. Personal responsibility is overrated.
Seems very on message for the guy.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/zack-polanski-interview-environmentalists-green-party-flpkvw790
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/11/slashing-jury-trials-could-clear-courts-backlog-within-a-decade-says-lammy
Well that's a relief. 2035 and we could be back on track in terms of people getting swift trials, just without a jury of their peers.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dangerous-Miracle-natural-history-antibiotics/dp/1847927548/ref=asc_df_1847927548?mcid=bd6b048ba926357aac3b4b0cc53528b2&th=1&psc=1&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=753438891305&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11762573423836464682&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9199185&hvtargid=pla-2430541017961&psc=1&hvocijid=11762573423836464682-1847927548-&hvexpln=0&gad_source=1
It's disgraceful
The name, I mean
Bring back the Rainbow Codes
Yellow Duckling. Now that's a proper name for a weapon. Or Violet Mist.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2gelrxxr0o
Ref 29.3%
Con 19.3%
Lab 18.0%
Grn 13.9%
LD 13.3%
SNP 2.8%
https://electionmaps.uk/polling/vi
An ex-civil service chap told me that he'd been told by his colleagues still there, that the six month delay was a suggestion by "industry experts"
That's right. The driving school companies.....
“1,418 days ago, Russia invaded Ukraine.
1,418 days is also the time elapsed between the first German units crossing the border into the Soviet Union at the start of Operation Barbarossa, and the Red Army securing the surrender of Berlin.
In 1,418 days, Soviet units retreated from the frontier, lost Kyiv, Smolensk, Minsk, the Baltic States and all of Ukraine and Belarus, endured one of the most horrific sieges in history at Leningrad and very nearly lost Moscow, then fought back, defeated the Germans (at stunning cost) at Stalingrad and Kursk, and finally pushed the Germans all the way back to Berlin. Ukrainian forces played a key role in that victory.
In 1,418 days, Russian units have advanced from Donetsk city to (squints at map) about 40km west of Donetsk city, has lost ~350,000 soldiers killed, 1 million more injured, captured or deserted, seen between 1 and 2 million of its brightest citizens flee the country, and been reduced to begging such capable economies as Iran and North Korea for aid. And it has failed to seize a single major Ukrainian city (the only one that came close it lost again, almost immediately). It has also somehow doubled the size of the Ukrainian army and helped Ukraine equip itself with F-16s, Mirages, HIMARS artillery, Abrams, Challenger and Leopard main battle tanks, and a couple million drones. It has also added two new, powerful militaries to NATO, more than doubled the length of its direct border with NATO, and exhausted almost the entirety of Russia's strategic reserve of tanks, artillery and infantry fighting vehicles. It has also performed an impressive feat of economic wizardry in that its economy is now propped up by military spending, so if the war ends, the Russian economy may simply collapse, but if it keeps fighting, the Russian economy may also just implode.
Ukraine has endured terrible losses of civilian and military life, and massive disruption to its economy. But it's also gained a sense of purpose and identity in the conflict. It has proven itself on the world stage, and woken up Europe to a threat it should have really perceived a decade ago, at the latest. It remains in danger, cities remain in darkness and the cold because the Russians can somehow hit a power transformer outside Kyiv but not a military target of any significant value, and there are areas of danger on the front. But if they can outlast the Russian war effort, continue some very impressive (if only idiotically necessary) diplomatic footwork with the Americans and keep up the fight, the Russians will be forced to stop, and if the Russian position collapses, Ukraine could still retake a lot of its land.
I suspect Stalin would, by this juncture, just have had Putin shot out of hand.
Likewise, I think great strides have been made in the last few years accepting that right wingers are equally as capable as being snowflakes as those on the left.
The Return is best new movie I’ve seen recently - Ralph Fiennes Odysseus returning home after the long war is the best “Superhero” movie yet made IMO. I also thought Spinal Tap II better than its midling reviews, because it’s dry and subtle comedy works all the way through, the lines they give the cameo guests are very funny. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so I will say SPOILER but instead of a Mini Stonehenge they now have a massive one and it falls on top of Elton John. It also worked because they are genuinely old, the sense of time they are playing with is a real one. I hope they don’t make the planned last one, if they do they need to get the drummer and her fiancé back as they were great! But they left it with her life in the hands of the man who may have been killed by his son.
Apparently they frequently got very upset when she explained she had to publish the results of various studies they'd asked for, regardless of whether or not they liked the conclusions; it seems her ministers weren't nearly as good as they thought they were at setting the terms of reference for the various studies they requested to get the "right" outcomes.
The biggest losers from the change will be farm kids, most of whom will have been driving heavy machinery since primary school, and driving tractors on the road since close to their 16th birthday (if not before - I've known plenty of farm kids not worry too much about a licence for short distances on the road). I went to a rural school, several farm kids in the 6th form passed their driving test on their 17th birthday.
But if there is a group of people Starmer seems to particularly hate, farmers kids are going to be up there...
I’ve recently watched War and Peace and they didn’t go to Paris. I watched a 1960’s film of War & Peace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93fgBTbbJOI
Farage PM, Polanski Leader of the Opposition would certainly make for an interesting parliament. Although if Farage "fails", I fancy a Polanski government the following term less than even one run by Corbyn.
Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, he said on Sunday.
In a video announcing the probe, Powell said the US justice department served the agency with subpoenas and threatened a criminal indictment over testimony he gave to a Senate committee about renovations to Federal Reserve buildings.
He called the probe "unprecedented" and said he believed it was opened due to him drawing President Donald Trump's ire over refusing to lower interest rates despite repeated public pressure from the president.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c801k7rkkd7o
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgk8j1gkxelo
For You:
This is like Discover but better.
https://bsky.app/profile/spacecowboy17.bsky.social/feed/for-you
Likes of Likes:
Similar job, some guy in Japan made this
https://bsky.app/profile/so-asano.com/feed/likes-of-likes
Mutuals:
My mutuals feed is much smarter than my following feed. I'm not sure if this will work for everybody, it may be because I have a slight crypto reference in my bio which repels the left-reactionary types that the site has more of than it needs even if I'm foolish enough to follow them
https://bsky.app/profile/skyfeed.xyz/feed/mutuals
Quiet Posters:
This is incredibly useful. People you follow, who don't post much. Often what these people do post is high quality and you don't want to miss it
https://bsky.app/profile/why.bsky.team/feed/infreq
"I will oppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed—including the upcoming Fed Chair vacancy—until this legal matter is fully resolved.”
I asked Claude and it says that if the Senate won't confirm a replacement, the current chair continues to serve in the interim. So potentially Jay Powell gets to stay on after his term is up...
His torture regime by the US authorities (waterboarding, simulated drowning etc) reminds me of aspects of the accounts in The White Rabbit, by a FFE Yeo-Thomas in wartime Paris, of how he was tortured by the Gestapo.
A salutary reminder that it is not just the Trump regime in the USA that treats law and people with contempt. This was Bush and Obama, too. And Biden for continuing to hold him in a black prison. Trump has taken it much, much further.
I'm sure we all remember the Jurisdictional games they played with Guantanamo - 'But it's not the USA so he does not have rights".
I'll be interested to see how our far right / populist media and influencers react to this (not referring to anyone on PB to be clear). At present they are wetting themselves over Musk vs (allegedly) Starmer, and Anna Paulina Luna.
Remember only a third are even up for election and it is not favourable to the (D) as these are the ones last elected when Trump was last POTUS and Biden won.
To overthrow the regime, I suspect clarity on that would be needed.
Best limited series WINNER: Adolescence
Best actor, limited series WINNER: Stephen Graham – Adolescence
Best supporting actress (television) WINNER: Erin Doherty – Adolescence
Best supporting actor (television) WINNER: Owen Cooper – Adolescence
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwygn18nyllo
Maine (Susan Collins) - Harris +6.9% → Dems would hold 48 seats
North Carolina (Thom Tillis) - Trump +3.2% → Dems would hold 49 seats
Ohio (Special election, JD Vance's seat) - Trump +11.5% → Dems would hold 50 seats
Florida (Special election, Marco Rubio's seat) - Trump +13.1% → Dems would hold 51 seats (outright majority)
Iowa (Open seat, Joni Ernst not running) - Trump +13.2% → Dems would hold 52 seats
Texas (John Cornyn) - Trump +13.8% → Dems would hold 53 seats
Kansas (Roger Marshall) - Trump ~+14-15% → Dems would hold 54 seats
South Carolina (Lindsey Graham) - Trump ~+17-18% → Dems would hold 55 seats
Mississippi (Roger Wicker) - Trump ~+18% → Dems would hold 56 seats
Louisiana (John Kennedy) - Trump ~+18-19% → Dems would hold 57 seats
Montana (Steve Daines) - Trump ~+20% → Dems would hold 58 seats
Nebraska (Pete Ricketts) - Trump ~+20% → Dems would hold 59 seats
Tennessee (Bill Hagerty) - Trump ~+21% → Dems would hold 60 seats
Alabama (Open seat, Tommy Tuberville running for governor) - Trump ~+25% → Dems would hold 61 seats
Arkansas (Tom Cotton) - Trump ~+28% → Dems would hold 62 seats
South Dakota (Mike Rounds) - Trump ~+29% → Dems would hold 63 seats
Kentucky (Open seat, Mitch McConnell retiring) - Trump ~+30% → Dems would hold 64 seats
Oklahoma (Markwayne Mullin) - Trump ~+33% → Dems would hold 65 seats
Idaho (Jim Risch) - Trump ~+37% → Dems would hold 66 seats
West Virginia (Shelley Moore Capito) - Trump ~+42% → Dems would hold 67 seats
Wyoming (John Barrasso) - Trump ~+43% → Dems would hold 68 seats
Some countries that have prosecuted or threatened to prosecute central bankers for the purpose of political intimidation or punishment for monetary policy decisions: Argentina, Russia, Turkey, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
https://x.com/jasonfurman/status/2010532384924442645
NEW THREAD
At the very least I would expect a loss of interest in overseas issues and a concentration on internal affairs and the economy. Collapse into Libyan style anarchy is very possible.