Monday 16th June 2025
Re: Monday 16th June 2025
Morning all, already been a long week, and only Monday midday here .
Firstly, refit do keep us in touch with your sister's news ?
My early first reading of the day was Freedland interviewing the scholar Marci Shore --
" That response captures the double lens through which Shore sees the Trump phenomenon, informed by both the Third Reich and the “neo-totalitarianism” exhibited most clearly in the Russia of Vladimir Putin. We speak as Shore is trying to do her day job, having touched down in Warsaw en route to Kyiv, with Poland and Ukraine long a focus of her studies. Via Zoom from a hotel lobby, she peppers our conversation with terms drawn from a Russian political lexicon that suddenly fits a US president.
“The unabashed narcissism, this Nero-like level of narcissism and this lack of apology … in Russian, it’s obnazhenie; ‘laying bare’.” It’s an approach to politics “in which all of the ugliness is right on the surface,” not concealed in any way. “And that’s its own kind of strategy. You just lay everything out there.”
She fears that the sheer shamelessness of Trump has “really disempowered the opposition, because our impulse is to keep looking for the thing that’s hidden and expose it, and we think that’s going to be what makes the system unravel.” But the problem is not what’s hidden, it’s “what we’ve normalised – because the whole strategy is to throw it all in your face.” "
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ou-get-out
I first 'met' her now a few years ago in a youtube with Jonathan Fink , she described working in various Secret Police archives ...
" so then of course I had to learn another language ..." !
Firstly, refit do keep us in touch with your sister's news ?
My early first reading of the day was Freedland interviewing the scholar Marci Shore --
" That response captures the double lens through which Shore sees the Trump phenomenon, informed by both the Third Reich and the “neo-totalitarianism” exhibited most clearly in the Russia of Vladimir Putin. We speak as Shore is trying to do her day job, having touched down in Warsaw en route to Kyiv, with Poland and Ukraine long a focus of her studies. Via Zoom from a hotel lobby, she peppers our conversation with terms drawn from a Russian political lexicon that suddenly fits a US president.
“The unabashed narcissism, this Nero-like level of narcissism and this lack of apology … in Russian, it’s obnazhenie; ‘laying bare’.” It’s an approach to politics “in which all of the ugliness is right on the surface,” not concealed in any way. “And that’s its own kind of strategy. You just lay everything out there.”
She fears that the sheer shamelessness of Trump has “really disempowered the opposition, because our impulse is to keep looking for the thing that’s hidden and expose it, and we think that’s going to be what makes the system unravel.” But the problem is not what’s hidden, it’s “what we’ve normalised – because the whole strategy is to throw it all in your face.” "
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ou-get-out
I first 'met' her now a few years ago in a youtube with Jonathan Fink , she described working in various Secret Police archives ...
" so then of course I had to learn another language ..." !
Re: Monday 16th June 2025
I had this on while doing chores , from just after the Oval Office Ambush of Zelensky, discussing the different approaches to DJT, including the Starmer apparent obsequiousness one, from 32 minutes --
Her conclusion at 35mins on, " For whatever reason Trump belongs to Putin" ... " The régime is evil, there''s no dealing with it ."
AND .. she is, still, a Russophile .
Her conclusion at 35mins on, " For whatever reason Trump belongs to Putin" ... " The régime is evil, there''s no dealing with it ."
AND .. she is, still, a Russophile .
Re: Monday 16th June 2025
Phillips P OBrien's weekend newsletter
The Golden Rule
" Building on the first section of this update, there is something called the Golden Rule, which needs to be understood overall about US policy. The Golden Rule is that Trump wants what Putin wants—even for all his attempted head fakes on the issue. We have just seen one of the best examples of this, and its worth highlighting to try and show how, Europeans in particular, need to understand that Trump is not some even-handed force."
....
" Putin clearly wants this issue to be settled. Iran has been a great ally of Russia, providing crucial military capabilities (the original shahed designs) and strong diplomatic support. The last thing Putin wants is a new government in Tehran that might be less amenable.
As such, Trump is making it clear that he is not part of the campaign and wants to make a deal.
Its the golden rule—what Putin wants, Trump wants.
Please understand that Europeans. "
-----------------------------------------------------
Hardly surprising then that Trump vetoed the Israeli possibility that they could assassinate the Supreme Leader .
The Golden Rule
" Building on the first section of this update, there is something called the Golden Rule, which needs to be understood overall about US policy. The Golden Rule is that Trump wants what Putin wants—even for all his attempted head fakes on the issue. We have just seen one of the best examples of this, and its worth highlighting to try and show how, Europeans in particular, need to understand that Trump is not some even-handed force."
....
" Putin clearly wants this issue to be settled. Iran has been a great ally of Russia, providing crucial military capabilities (the original shahed designs) and strong diplomatic support. The last thing Putin wants is a new government in Tehran that might be less amenable.
As such, Trump is making it clear that he is not part of the campaign and wants to make a deal.
Its the golden rule—what Putin wants, Trump wants.
Please understand that Europeans. "
-----------------------------------------------------
Hardly surprising then that Trump vetoed the Israeli possibility that they could assassinate the Supreme Leader .
Re: Monday 16th June 2025
@sky
Sympathy for your brother with the slipped disc, happened to me a few years ago and it didn't get better until I started taking the exercises seriously.
Half cobra leading up to full cobra did the trick.
Sympathy for your brother with the slipped disc, happened to me a few years ago and it didn't get better until I started taking the exercises seriously.
Half cobra leading up to full cobra did the trick.
Re: Monday 16th June 2025
Just going to have another quick rant about the A66.
This article https://www.ippr.org/articles/making-every-pound-count
It says "Investment in new road projects are not the best value for money" and approvingly cites the A303 Stonehenge bypass cancellation. Then goes on to suggest that the Lower Thames Crossing should have been cancelled, most people would probably agree on that but the govt's throwing another £xm at it just now. Then we come to the A66 and some of us wonder if they actually know what it is.
1. The A66 is not a new road. It's a dangerous mixture of single and dual carriageway and very busy. If you want to 'renew the existing road network' it's a prime candidate.
2. One of the reasons it's very busy is that there is no public transport option across the Pennines between Newcastle and Leeds. Nearly £700k people live in Tees Valley and if they want to go to the Lake District they have to drive. Not just talking about trains here, there's no buses either, and not even a hint of a suggestion that that's going to change any time soon.
3. Note that they don't actually mention how much it would cost. You could probably do it 4 times over for the cost of the Lower Thames crossing, leaving aside the chance that the £9bn they quote could double before they've finished building it.
I could go on but I'm boring myself now ....
This article https://www.ippr.org/articles/making-every-pound-count
It says "Investment in new road projects are not the best value for money" and approvingly cites the A303 Stonehenge bypass cancellation. Then goes on to suggest that the Lower Thames Crossing should have been cancelled, most people would probably agree on that but the govt's throwing another £xm at it just now. Then we come to the A66 and some of us wonder if they actually know what it is.
The piece starts off by sayingThe Lower Thames Crossing has an initial BCR of 0.48, meaning the scheme will cost more than it is expected to deliver in returns. When recalculating an adjusted BCR to include wider economic benefits (for example journey time reliability and agglomeration effects, but not wider costs such as induced traffic and therefore not the impact of induced traffic on emissions, air quality or safety), this rises to 1.22, a return of £1.22 for every £1 invested, and is projected to cost at least £9 billion. DfT classifies this as low value for money. The A66 Northern Trans Pennine scheme has an adjusted BCR that is 0.92, suggesting that even the wider economic benefits do not deliver a return on investment for this project.
.this money should be redirected away from capital spending on new roads towards renewing our existing road network, public transport and active travel.
1. The A66 is not a new road. It's a dangerous mixture of single and dual carriageway and very busy. If you want to 'renew the existing road network' it's a prime candidate.
2. One of the reasons it's very busy is that there is no public transport option across the Pennines between Newcastle and Leeds. Nearly £700k people live in Tees Valley and if they want to go to the Lake District they have to drive. Not just talking about trains here, there's no buses either, and not even a hint of a suggestion that that's going to change any time soon.
3. Note that they don't actually mention how much it would cost. You could probably do it 4 times over for the cost of the Lower Thames crossing, leaving aside the chance that the £9bn they quote could double before they've finished building it.
I could go on but I'm boring myself now ....