Tuesday 22nd February 2022

[refitman]

Morning all.

[frog222]

Morning RFM
Haven't listened yet to the Trojan Horse podcasts, but did to the chat last night. I wonder how many journos really did know all about the Number Ten party culture ?
(And much else)

[pressureuk]

Are the comments below Business Live now permanently off?

[frog222]

Are the comments below Business Live now permanently off?

Sorry, no idea !

[frog222]

No precise figs for France: the state insurance pays 50% but the employer quite often makes up the rest .

EDIT-- whoops !

Those are the normal figs … during Covid all wages were pushed up to 100% for those on minimum wage, tapering down for the others.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Hopefully there is nobody on here still willing to shill for Putin. The man is obviously insane.

[RogerOThornhill]

Good afternoon.

After a brief period yesterday when I thought my gout was receding, we're back to where we were today. Sigh.

In other news, it'll come as a shock that JRM really is a clueless numpty.

[RogerOThornhill]

RIP Gary Brooker.

Have this one on me...

[AnatolyKasparov]

To call *that* take today from Stephen Pollard deranged would actually be unfair on genuinely deranged people.

[RogerOThornhill]

Part of this was on a video earlier today.

Apparently the Ambassador did his PhD until the supervision of Lawrence Freedman...

[AnatolyKasparov]

Yes, very impressive.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

After a brief period yesterday when I thought my gout was receding, we're back to where we were today. Sigh.

A friend of mine began taking the tablets that control the uric acid levels in your blood and he's not had any problems with his gout since. Possibly not a good thing as he's back to drinking pretty heavily again but at least his toes are ok.

[frog222]

CRACE

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -oligarchs

BOJO and the Joke Sanctions ... faithful to his friends

[AnatolyKasparov]

After a brief period yesterday when I thought my gout was receding, we're back to where we were today. Sigh.

A friend of mine began taking the tablets that control the uric acid levels in your blood and he's not had any problems with his gout since. Possibly not a good thing as he's back to drinking pretty heavily again but at least his toes are ok.

Allopurinol? I've been on that since two attacks of gout in early 2019 - and yes, it works pretty well.

[frog222]

triantafillos @ Bloris
8 minutes ago

I like how the Tories managed to find the only three Russians who haven't donated to the party
They have not got a bean invested in this country, thats why!

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Hopefully there is nobody on here still willing to shill for Putin. The man is obviously insane.

I dunno. Say what you like about Putin but he's managed to engender a hitherto unthinkable unity across the political spectrum in this country with Nigel Farage and Jeremy Corbyn signing from the same hym sheet.

It's quite remarkable to see statements from Stop the War and opinion pieces from GB News being practically interchangeable.

[refitman]

The absolute state of the press in this country

[Sky'sGoneOut]

It's entirely obvious why the alt-right admire Putin's Russia, he's taking a wrecking ball to Western liberal orthodoxy. Racism, homophobia, brutal murderous repression of dissenting opinion, gangster capitalism, they love all that, though it's notable that none of them seem to want to live in Russia. They'll sing Putin's praises and take his money but at arms length from the relative safety of the liberal democracies they so vehemently claim to despise.

Whereas why anyone on the left would have anything other than outright contempt for Putin is completely beyond me. Sure there are going to be a few confused old Marxists still fighting the cold war but surely even they must baulk at the atrocities Putin commits against his own people, never mind anyone else. There's no Iron Curtain anymore so there's no excuse for ignorance, being an apologist for Putin's regime really does make you a useful fucking idiot when it takes 5 minutes on Google to see how many left wing journalists and activists he's had killed or imprisoned. Has the West done terrible things? Of course. Does that mean we should understand and appease a lunatic giving insane speeches demanding lebensraum? You've got to out of your fucking mind. No sane person wants war, especially not with a country that could reduce civilisation as we know it to radioactive ashes, but there's a fine line between not wanting war and appearing to accept that the unhinged demagogue who has brought us to the brink of one has a point.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Goddamit Twitter are being utter bastards to those of us without accounts.

I've tried blocking cookies but it didn't work, the only way I've found to browse the site unharassed is to use private browsing in Firefox (might work in Chrome) and refresh the page.

Maybe it's about time I got one of those 'burner phones' you hear so much about in bad crime dramas or maybe just a free sim with a number I can use once to register on Twitter because the fuckers aren't getting my mobile number. I just tried using the email route and it ultimately requires a mobile number for a confirmatory text. Fuck off Twitter.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

The Reflux

[Sky'sGoneOut]

That was some big hair.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I feel like meeting a sexy lady in a chiffon dress in a hotel lobby after I solved a crime as a Seventies American detective while shooting dogs into space.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[PorFavor]

That prompted me to look up Laika the dog that was sent up into space by the Russians. Really sad story (inevitably) so I wish that I hadn't.

[PorFavor]

With that uplifting thought, I shall say goodnight and try not to think of poor Laika or any of the other animals who suffered similarly.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

What made you think shooting dogs into space could have a happy ending?

[PorFavor]

I did say that it was an "inevitably" sad story!

[Sky'sGoneOut]

So you did.