Friday 7th February 2020

Post by **refitman** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 6:42 am

Morning all.

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 10:44 am

Good morning everybody.

I see that Phillip Schofield is trending on Twitter - is anybody surprised, really?

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 12:21 pm

Er,no.

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 12:23 pm

"Andi Peters was unavailable for comment".

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 12:30 pm

https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2019-20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 12:38 pm

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/benefits-an ... ic-1390253" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 12:47 pm

Anybody else about?

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 1:14 pm

I wasn't about earlier but I am now...

'Brexit film' producer jailed for £500k loan application fraud

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-b ... s-51404548

A film producer who lied about his income to secure a £519,000 loan has been jailed for more than three years.

David Shipley, 37, admitted editing images of his payslips and P60 to "over-inflate" his income to obtain money, Southwark Crown Court heard.

He is credited with producing the 2016 documentary film Brexit: The Movie, which promoted the UK's departure from the European Union.

A crooked Brexiteer?

I'm shocked...

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 1:22 pm

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... tchdog-nao" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 1:30 pm

Good afternoon, everyone.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 1:40 pm

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... hts-phones" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Shall we say "ironic",given the relentless Labour e-mails mornimg,afternoon and night urging more work and the privilege for people not only to work for free but chip in to pay for it

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 2:03 pm

Think that a Tory MP has some questions to answer here...

Tory candidate jailed for violent threats against Yvette Cooper

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... tte-cooper

In a message sent last April to a man he met on a dating website, Spencer suggested Cooper should “pay” for trying to thwart a no-deal Brexit, after MPs voted to stop the UK leaving the EU on 29 March 2019 as planned.

“We should have left no deal on the 29th before the whore Yvette got her hands on to it and voted to revoke democracy. She will pay. I’m already organising … to hurt her. Amazing what crackheads will do for £100. I’m going to get her beat up,” he wrote.

But Andrea Jenkyns said that he was “a decent and honest person whose heart is in the right place and who always helps people in need”.

Post by **adam** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 2:24 pm

RogerOThornhill wrote:Think that a Tory MP has some questions to answer here...

Tory candidate jailed for violent threats against Yvette Cooper

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... tte-cooper

In a message sent last April to a man he met on a dating website, Spencer suggested Cooper should “pay” for trying to thwart a no-deal Brexit, after MPs voted to stop the UK leaving the EU on 29 March 2019 as planned.

“We should have left no deal on the 29th before the whore Yvette got her hands on to it and voted to revoke democracy. She will pay. I’m already organising … to hurt her. Amazing what crackheads will do for £100. I’m going to get her beat up,” he wrote.
But Andrea Jenkyns said that he was “a decent and honest person whose heart is in the right place and who always helps people in need”.

I was just going to write about this one.

She [Jenkyns] said she did not condone what he had done but claimed he had been “let down by the system” and desperately needed help for his mental health problems, including biopolar disorder and suicidal thoughts.

Let down by what your party have done to the system for the last ten years and what you personally have done to it since 2015.

He was a tory candidate in the May local elections and he was an official tory representative at Cooper's count. At what point did they know what had been going in with the criminal proceedings? Edited to add - he was arrested - on these issues - before last May's local elections. He must have been in the middle of criminal proceedings about threatening Cooper when the Conservatives authorised him as a representative at Cooper's count.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 2:49 pm

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

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 2:54 pm

Yes, definitely a case of "Oh, now there's a problem with the care system?"

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 3:09 pm

Give people right to ignore work emails at home, says Long-Bailey

Labour leadership contender says she wants to end ‘24/7 work culture’
(Guardian)

Employers should be banned from sending them out of work hours.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... hts-phones

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 3:48 pm

At least 69 suicides linked to DWP's handling of benefit claims

Watchdog warns true number of cases where claimants took own lives as a result of DWP actions could be far higher (Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... tchdog-nao

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 3:55 pm

Sorry, HindleA. I'm a bit slow on the uptake today.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 4:03 pm

https://www.nao.org.uk/report/informati ... claimants/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 4:05 pm

To be fair,I just posted the link.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 4:10 pm

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 4:15 pm

Is that your final letter on the subject?

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 4:19 pm

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 4:40 pm

P please, Bob.

Post by **PaulfromYorkshire** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 5:45 pm

Surprisingly Peggie Tit-tube is leading the Democratic nominations (4,9).

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 6:23 pm

Officially speaking he does, the Sanders camp have produced their own differing figures. Strong banana republic energy here!

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 6:28 pm

adam wrote:---
He was a tory candidate in the May local elections and he was an official tory representative at Cooper's count. At what point did they know what had been going in with the criminal proceedings? Edited to add - he was arrested - on these issues - before last May's local elections. He must have been in the middle of criminal proceedings about threatening Cooper when the Conservatives authorised him as a representative at Cooper's count.

(cJA edit & bold)

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 7:10 pm

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... f-benefits" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 8:09 pm

Trump has been impeached by the US House of Representatives. That the US Senate declined impeaching Trump doesn't change that.

Robert Reich early December 2019

The 'aquittal' horseshit in headlines bothers me a lot because it's a lie. The guy no longer has the power to pardon. Despite the attempts of media working for the US Republican party and Trump, both party and man are discredited in the eyes of US voters.

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 8:11 pm

The US Republican party is a disgrace.

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 9:34 pm

One local council byelection yesterday:

Warrington - Labour hold with close to 60% of the vote, a small drop since the 2016 all-out elections when they easily won the two seats here. Indeed, this ward has been basically unchanged since the initial 1997 unitary election - it very safely voted Labour then too, and has remained so ever since. At times the LibDems have taken second place and have contested all previous elections with the exception of 2011, but they were absent this time too and that may have helped the Tories get a double figure increase in their vote. Last place to an Independent (and former UKIP candidate) with 4%.

Next week is busier - six contests.

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 10:25 pm

PorFavor wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... tchdog-nao

You've got to love some of the language the DWP use.

“identify recommendations for change to the customer journey”.

So we're customers on a journey now are we? Maybe we should be able to review our Job/assessment centre on Trip Advisor.

Leeds Centre for Health and Disability Assessments.

Upon arriving at Leeds assessment centre I couldn't help but notice the pool appeared to have been replaced by a car park, the palm trees by a couple of scabby looking elms surrounded by fag ends and the jolly concierge by a glum security guard. It was at this point that I began to suspect that the brochure hadn't been entirely accurate. Once inside my suspicions were only heightened when instead of finding myself amongst happy, smiling assessment goers drinking cocktails from coconut shells, I was in fact confronted by a miscellany of human misery. My hope that this would all be cleared up at reception were quickly dashed when instead of being offered a complimentary basket of gifts and a free ticket to the evening's show (Edwina Currie as Sally Bowles in an evening of Cabaret) I was forced to sign a number of legal documents which informed me that I would lose my entire income if I left.

In short the entire experience was not at all as I had seen it advertised in certain pages of the popular right wing press, or how it had been described by prominent politicians of a certain pollitical party on our airwaves. And as such I cannot recommend it to anyone besides those of a morbid inclination.

0/5 stars.

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 10:36 pm

Talking of Trump, you have to wonder at the people who are still prepared to stand by him when he acts in such a vindictive manner.

Impeachment Witness Alexander Vindman Fired From the White House

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/us/p ... ticleShare

The White House on Friday fired Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, whose testimony in the House impeachment hearings infuriated President Trump and his allies, escorting him out of the complex just days after the Senate trial ended in acquittal, his lawyer said.

“There is no question in the mind of any American why this man’s job is over, why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House,” David Pressman, the lawyer, said in a statement. “Lt. Col. Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth. His honor, his commitment to right, frightened the powerful.”

Colonel Vindman’s twin brother, Yevgeny Vindman, also an Army lieutenant colonel who worked at the White House, was fired as well and escorted out at the same time, according to two people briefed on the developments.

Words fail.

frog222 · Post by **frog222** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 10:44 pm

RogerOThornhill wrote:Talking of Trump, you have to wonder at the people who are still prepared to stand by him when he acts in such a vindictive manner.

Impeachment Witness Alexander Vindman Fired From the White House

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/us/p ... ticleShare

The White House on Friday fired Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, whose testimony in the House impeachment hearings infuriated President Trump and his allies, escorting him out of the complex just days after the Senate trial ended in acquittal, his lawyer said.

“There is no question in the mind of any American why this man’s job is over, why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House,” David Pressman, the lawyer, said in a statement. “Lt. Col. Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth. His honor, his commitment to right, frightened the powerful.”

Colonel Vindman’s twin brother, Yevgeny Vindman, also an Army lieutenant colonel who worked at the White House, was fired as well and escorted out at the same time, according to two people briefed on the developments.
Words fail.

Roger, It's simple . They are Scared of him -
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/opin ... hment.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
In Private, Republicans Admit They Acquitted Trump Out of Fear
One journalist remarked to me, “How in the world can these senators walk around here upright when they have no backbone?”

By Sherrod Brown
Mr. Brown is a Democratic senator from Ohio.

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 10:45 pm

citizenJA wrote:The US Republican party is a disgrace.

What's interesting are the cracks appearing in Fox News.

In just the last couple of days we've had their senior legal analyst saying Trump is guilty as sin.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/judge-a ... high-crime

Then the leak from one of their political affairs analysts saying that their own guests are spreading disinformation.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/ ... ntributors

This would have been unheard of back in the day when they were cheerleading George.W.Bush, so while indeed the Republicans are a disgrace it seems defending Trump may be stretching their capacity for shamelessness to its limits.

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 10:54 pm

RogerOThornhill wrote:Words fail.

They certainly will for the America right or wrong Trump supporting headbangers who would have gone apopleptic if a Democrat had treated a decorated veteran in such a manner. We won't hear a peep from them besides wild conspiracy theories, it's all they've got left.

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 11:00 pm

@Sky'sGoneOut
I enjoy your writing and humour. I wish I could thank you with better words but I'm tired and can't think of anything better.

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 11:05 pm

Trump's response to the expected result from the Senate disturbed me. He's not exonerated or 'acquitted''; the House impeached him. That doesn't go away. Other media didn't seem inclined pointing out the truth of his impeachment and what it all meant. I'm not an expert on US constitutional matters but what I've posted leads to accurate information.

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 11:06 pm

Goodnight, everyone.
love,
cJA

frog222 · Post by **frog222** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 11:13 pm

citizenJA wrote:Trump's response to the expected result from the Senate disturbed me. He's not exonerated or 'acquitted''; the House impeached him. That doesn't go away. Other media didn't seem inclined pointing out the truth of his impeachment and what it all meant. I'm not an expert on US constitutional matters but what I've posted leads to accurate information.

See the Foxnews link to Judge Napolitano !

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 11:31 pm

I've been doing some reading on the German scientific community and its relationship with the Nazis (am reading a book on Paul Dirac and Heisenberg's behaviour got me intrigued) and found this excellent article/book extract.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... -excerpt1/

It really is worth a read if you have time but I can summarise it pretty quickly.

Stupid people (yes even Nobel prize winners can be very stupid indeed) with petty grievances use ridiculous race based conspiracy theories to hound the greatest theoretical physicist in the world out of their country.

And now the America that welcomed Einstein is awash with the kind of nonsense that led him there.

Also I would suggest not reading any biographies about Paul Dirac, he may have been a brilliant mathematician but he was also an emotional and social cripple who barely said anything to anyone ever. So consequently the book's a bit boring and almost entirely supposition. Though there is some good stuff about the transformation of Cambridge University from the Twenties when the students went out to help break the General Strike, to the Thirties when it became a hotbead of Marxism.

Anyway I appear to be rambling again.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 11:39 pm

I was about to ramble about Ionesco's "Rhinocerous" (I'm sure something must have reminded me of it but I don't know what) so you managed to fend that off.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Fri 07 Feb, 2020 11:53 pm

Probably something about "Brexit "?

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Sat 08 Feb, 2020 12:33 am

Everything's always about Brexit and it will be until the heat death of the universe.

There are little creatures on the surface of Titan right now pointing their telescopes at us saying 'Look at those arseholes'.

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Sat 08 Feb, 2020 12:38 am

citizenJA wrote:@Sky'sGoneOut
I enjoy your writing and humour. I wish I could thank you with better words but I'm tired and can't think of anything better.

Thanks CJA, you're always kind and I really do hope we meet again.

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Sat 08 Feb, 2020 1:04 am

Hope you're all up for a bit of music.

First a shout out to all you fans of absurdism out there, let's start with the only Camus inspired song I know.

[youtube]RFIwEQkH7sg[/youtube]

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Sat 08 Feb, 2020 1:18 am

Here's where I confess to having never read it.

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Sat 08 Feb, 2020 1:20 am

What? L'Étranger?

You dumbass.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Sat 08 Feb, 2020 1:20 am

("The Stranger", that is.)

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Sat 08 Feb, 2020 1:22 am

Collision of posts.