Friday 22nd January 2021

[refitman]

Morning all.

[citizenJA]

Good morning, everyone.

[Willow904]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55760467" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Covid-19: Ministers to discuss £500 Covid payment to boost self-isolation rates

This might have been a reasonable, and cost effective, idea in the summer when cases were low and restrictions were being lifted. Combined with a track and trace system that was working quickly it could have worked well to keep numbers as low as possible going into the winter. Now, though? I think I'd prefer a crackdown on workplaces, which are the drivers for people to return to work. Maybe recompense them, somehow, to support workers to isolate on full pay. Also local support that checks on people and brings food to their door. £500 several weeks later doesn't help people eat during isolation. I read of a single mother barely eating during her isolation with symptoms because she didn't have enough food, the last thing any ill person should be faced with having to do but what will happen when you have fines for breaking isolation but no support systems in place to help people do it.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Yes, they're just getting round to stuff that should have been considered last spring.

[Willow904]

Good thread on the impact of Brexit on online orders to and from the EU:

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Ben Chu
@BenChu_
Thread on why Brexit has disrupted e-commerce and why it matters more than you might think

We’re getting lots of reports of people being hit by unexpected VAT charges and delays on their online deliveries when the vendor is in Europe.

Why is this happening?....1/

[AnatolyKasparov]

Its all just "teething problems" though.

[Willow904]

Its all just "teething problems" though.

Yes, it will all settle down when small, independent businesses just give up exporting to and from the UK. Lots of UK businesses will close and lots of UK customers will have less choice but the stories will go away, which counts as "success" with this government.

[Willow904]

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... -nightmare" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Experience: my dream flat became a nightmare
Three months after moving in, I got a letter telling me my roof was covered in dangerous cladding

Edited to add this quote:

Under the terms of my agreement, I wasn’t allowed to rent the flat out, or sell it to a cash buyer, but that didn’t seem like a problem at the time.

Along with houses sold as leasehold, this seems to be another development in property that seems a very poor deal for buyers that decent solicitors doing what they are paid to do should be drawing to their client's attention and seriously warning them off. These schemes aren't in the interests of low earners, they're in the interests of propping up the property market. Along with "help to buy", they artificially create demand from new buyers that otherwise wouldn't be there that then keeps prices high. Without these schemes, house prices would fall and more people like the person above would be able to afford to buy in the usual way.

[citizenJA]

Michael Spicer
@MrMichaelSpicer
This was the Home Secretary's answer as to why the UK has the worst daily death rate in the world.



2:30 pm · 22 Jan 2021
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Priti Patel

[Sky'sGoneOut]

The Ignominious Deceits of Congressman Cawthorn

Representative Madison Cawthorn has misled the public about training for the Paralympics, just as he misrepresented his education and business history.

https://www.thenation.com/article/polit ... ralympics/

Cawthorn became disabled after a 2014 car crash left him paralyzed from the waist down. By Cawthorn’s own telling, he was a successful business owner headed to the Naval Academy before his injury tragically reordered his life. As it turns out, neither claim is true. The Asheville Watchdog reported that Cawthorn had already been rejected from the Naval Academy before his accident. And Cawthorn’s real-estate investment firm, SPQR Holdings LLC, which he only formed in August 2019, reported no income on its tax documents, and Cawthorn was the sole employee.

Cawthorn stated on the Christian inspirational podcast The Heal, “I had an opportunity for the Paralympics for track and field.” He did not have that opportunity, nor does it appear he took any meaningful steps that would have led him there.

What Cawthorn said on social media about his Paralympic training was often impossible, according to Siemann, McGrory, and multiple other former and current Paralympians. For example, in one post from May 2019, Cawthorn uses the hashtag “qualifiers.” In another post from February 2019, Cawthorn mentions that he is going to the “US Open” in June. But McGrory told me, “There were no qualifying meets in 2019.” Both she and Siemann had no idea what the “US Open” in Cawthorn’s post could possibly refer to.

Siemann admitted, a little sheepishly, that he and other elite athletes were aware of Cawthorn long before he ran for office. In fact, Cawthorn’s Instagram feed was a bit of a running joke. “[My teammates and I] would share whatever posts [Cawthorn] put up and be like, ‘Look at what batshit thing he said about the Paralympics this week.… The claims he was making were just so absurd, you have to find some humor in it.”

Multiple athletes expressed frustration, not just with Cawthorn but with the general ignorance of disability and athletics. If Cawthorn had claimed to be preparing for the 400 meters in the Summer Olympics, the press would have ridiculed him, but no one in media questioned his claims of training for the Paralympics.

[AnatolyKasparov]

No surprise that he found it easy to sell the "stolen election" fib.

[tinyclanger2]

makes me want to get out the random word generator again

[Sky'sGoneOut]

While walking through some very muddy woods this afternoon I could hear someone in floods of tears, it turned out to be a woman on the phone explaining to someone that she'd been made redundant because of Covid. As I gingerly approached through the quagmire I wondered whether I should stop and say something because she was really freaking out but the best I could manage was an attempt at a sympathetic smile before squelching on my way.

I personally don't know anyone who has lost their job as a result of the virus, so it was a distressing reminder of the shit a lot of people are having to go through. I hope things work out for her.

[tinyclanger2]

Grim. Feel the same about small businesses crumbling under Brexit. Even if they voted for it.

[tinyclanger2]

Still, at least not Trump for a bit.

[tinyclanger2]

Meanwhile my inner extrovert is starting to make itself known.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Still, at least not Trump for a bit.

His impeachment trial in the Senate starts next week, joy of joys.

[tinyclanger2]

i actually quite like just not hearing anything about him - so if he's not going to get convicted i'd rather not bother

[Sky'sGoneOut]

It's been quite entertaining listening to the squawking coming from the right in the U.S claiming that Biden implied in his inauguration speech that all Trump voters were white supremacists and fascists. Of course he said no such thing, the only people saying it are the right wing media themselves. Fox pundits have had guests on to talk about the prospect of the Democrats setting up 're-eduction camps' for the Trumpists, but as certain wits have observed that would require them to have been educated in the first place.

Something that's largely going under the radar in this country at the moment are the multiple threats of defamation lawsuits sent out by the Dominion voting machine folks who are mightily pissed off at almost the entire right wing U.S media for spreading outright lies about them. And it's already having an effect, Fox broadcast some half hearted 'clarifications' and OAN scrubbed all mention of Dominion from their website but it's not been enough because clearly Dominion smell blood. And who can blame them when at every level the U.S justice system has already ruled that these claims of election fraud relating to Dominion were bullshit?

https://www.businessinsider.com/dominio ... ?r=US&IR=T

[Sky'sGoneOut]

re-eduction camps

Nothing to see here, move along.

[PorFavor]

For whatever reason, I keep getting bombarded with "news" like the following -

CASTLE ROCK: New Theory Says Biden Is On Movie Set, Not In White House

https://welovetrump.com/2021/01/21/cast ... tter_randy

[Sky'sGoneOut]

i actually quite like just not hearing anything about him - so if he's not going to get convicted i'd rather not bother

Yes wouldn't it be nice to go back to a situation where Donald Trump is just some inconsequential dick you occasionaly laugh at.

Oh wait that's exactly what's happened.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

For whatever reason, I keep getting bombarded with "news" like the following -

CASTLE ROCK: New Theory Says Biden Is On Movie Set, Not In White House

https://welovetrump.com/2021/01/21/cast ... tter_randy

I’m just going to say right off the bat I don’t have any evidence to confirm or deny this story.

Always a good start.

A famous Q post contained the reference “Castle Rock” as a step in the plan after the Inauguration.

This is a utilisation of the word 'famous' that seems unwarranted at best.

Again, I am not confirming this to be true, just reporting.

Well indeed, I mean it's not like 'just reporting' shit has led to countless human beings killed in the past is it?

I'm 'just reporting' that this witch made the cows udders grow dry and my dick grow limp.

I'm 'just reporting' that when my ex wife got that restraining order against me for strangling her in public it just so happens a bunch of Mexicans lived next door and they are well known as cannibals.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

This is both of our faults.

[PorFavor]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[PorFavor]

[PorFavor]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

She's the little one.

[PorFavor]

[PorFavor]

Spot the difference.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Stop that.