TheAuthority

On 28/11/2020 at 04:49, mjmooney said:

Yeah, I found that a good watch. Despite Kerridge, whom I can't stand. Always felt there's something dodgy about him. 

We were family friends growing up. Not neighborhood friends - Once a month parents get together friends. His mom went to Halesowen Grammar with my dad (same class.)

Nice lad from what I can remember. From my understanding it's his wife who has really pushed the business side his celebrity. Done well for himself obviously. 

On 30/11/2020 at 10:29, villa4europe said:

Watching German bake off again, Danish week this week, 6 of them left, challenge one is just something typically danish

1 of them is making a cake, 1 cinnamon buns, 1 Danish pastry and 1 of them Danish biscuits 

Weird how they're letting be so different 

Never thought that a show about baking by amateurs would be worth a minute of my time. But now there's international spin offs?

I really don't have my finger on the 'pulse' of popular culture. Not criticizing just intrigued in whats appealing about it.

1 hour ago, legov said:

I've always had a bit of a crush on him/her.

Him now, but yeah.

8/10 WB

@icouldtelltheworld

Thanks for your post on 19/11 - Just got around to reading it now.  You bring up interesting points. I learnt today that violence against trans people means that their life expectancy is 35 in the US. Yes, 35 - Thats medieval.

It's a demonstrable fact that men who wish to sexually assault women don't dress up as women and enter their bathrooms to do it. But it is absolutely true that men kill transgender people. My opinion is that we should deal with that issue.
The bathroom argument is a noisy distraction.

JKR's arguments are very selfish. Trans folks have different issues and stigmas - that doesn't make feminine equality any less important - it's just a different issue. It's hard to understand why she's misunderstood this so much.

On as the comments that @mjmooney shared from his daughter. Murder isn't the only thing that causes death amongst the trans community. Suicide especially amongst teens if rife. 

It is society's duty to protect our most vulnerable other wise what are we? The majority of trans folks understand or feel that they are trans from an early age. What if it were you? Or your own child? 35 years of life expectancy?

4 hours ago, villakram said:

A declaration of bankruptcy has little relevance to ones ability to run a business, if ones goal is to make money, e.g., see the entire leveraged buyout sector. Capitalism 101 aka "it's just business".

Serious question VK. Do you the think the vote is rigged or is it legit?

No need for cryptic responses - a simple yes or no will suffice.

I don't want us to play them if they could contaminate us too - surely there's a risk to our 1st eleven?

7 hours ago, Davkaus said:

Yup, the scheduling of this is a joke. Last team to play this round of games, first team to play the next round. **** the players, got to keep the TV dickheads happy. 

Errr, isn't that all of us right now? 

Ooof that was close!

5 minutes ago, rjw63 said:

Hope you've all got your raincoats at the ready for the Bielsa-bub spunkfest.

Of course. This 1-0 victory is the epitome of perfect football 

Guessing we'll be wearing the camo gear?

Talking about Wackadoodles, James Woods playing Giuliani is peak Trump.

10 hours ago, snowychap said:

Let's hope no one (with anything close to any power with regard to the situation) suggests a program of forced vaccination.

I don't think any government had suggested this. However to get a visa to enter most African and South Asian countries you need a copy of your Yellow Fever vaccination form. To go to school and University you need prove you to have had certain vaccinations. To apply for a Green Card in the US you have to take an HIV test. (I'm not sure if being positive disqualifies you from getting a green card but you have to take the test.)

Forced vaccination doesn't exist. But trying to function in society in the US without having taken certain health precautions is hard.

16 hours ago, snowychap said:

I think it depends what one means by 'largely back to normal'.

I'm not sure that some of the measures introduced will be dropped that quickly (even allowing for the likely clamour that @HanoiVillansuggests) or even at all.

Even if the vaccines have all of their desired effects and work brilliantly, I don't think that you'll see the pre-covid world completely return.

I see this speculation a lot. Why and what in your view will change? I see subtle changes in my industry. But I also imagine that once the majority of folks in the West are  inoculated I can see a months of meals out, family trips, partying and full on revelry. Another summer of love for 2021.

Interested to hear why this won't happen. Will people decide they prefer being miserable hermits stuck at home 24-7? 

Quote

Melania Trump is once again working her “ass off at the Christmas stuff” even though “you know, who gives a **** about the Christmas stuff and decorations.” This year, her last as first lady, she’s carrying out her prescribed duties as if it were like any other year. She’s doing it all as though she wasn’t recorded besmirching the name of the holiday that her husband famously saved from the dreaded P.C. police. 

On Monday she welcomed the Christmas tree. In years past, a couple of beautiful Clydesdales have taken a break from starring in beer commercials to escort the tree to its penultimate resting place, the Blue Room of the White House. Often, both halves of the first couple are there to greet the fallen fir and the family who grew it—Don in his wide tie, Melania in a tartan coat, serving literal Mrs. Claus to the people.

This year Don was not there, and Melania’s coat was herringbone, but otherwise, it was business as usual. She made some conversation with the two men steering the sleigh and dutifully smiled for the camera alongside the Taylors, who grew the Fraser fir—one photo with mask on, one mask off. 

What a cognitive dissonance to see traditions like this go on while the president makes a flaccid attempt to undermine democracy and the pandemic rages stronger than ever. It’s dissonant, too, to see the first lady do Christmas again after hearing in recorded phone calls her absolute displeasure with having to do Christmas. The placid smile, the polite conversation, reportedly ignoring a question about the president and instead saying “Merry Christmas.” The parallel universe that the first family sometimes lives in is well here at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 

Melania Trump Still Has to Give a f--k about Christmas

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/11/melania-trump-receives-christmas-tree

1 hour ago, villakram said:

People like to point to their favorite "ism" to blame for Trump, while ignoring the neo-liberal economic order and those who've brought it about. How far doth the downward things trickle?

But trickle down economics have long been championed by the Republicans. It is Dems (especially of a local level) that want to spend on social services. Yes, there is corporate money supporting Democrats, but accusing them of championing trickle down theories is really double-think.

2 minutes ago, blandy said:

Exactly. Densely populated coastal places, v sparsely populated rural areas. That graphic looks to be potentially highly misleading in the way it's being used.

That was my sense. You could come to many different conclusions depending on how you wanted to see the info.

4 hours ago, villakram said:

Context.

.

 

Obviously, this is also due to the Russians...

 

This is very interesting. The info can be digested in many different ways.

I would be interested to see population figures alongside this and how that has changed over the years.

Also, if we agree (haha) that Trump was an outlier in terms of his winning the Presidency, can the figures above for this election be taken at face value i.e. as a trend of moving more this way. In 2016 it appears that Trump counties contributed to 36% of GDP.

Liverpool all over Leicester

8 minutes ago, Xela said:

You can go back to the original Death Star and its glaring weakness. As long as you can fire a shot into a vent, it will destroy the whole thing. Just put a blast resistant grill on it. Sorted. 

 

They’re two a credit at the Tashi Station

Got to hand it to the Empire - they have an excellent branding and design department. All of their ships and bases have the same look and feel.

But why do they always build those little half walls in their hallways? The pesky rebels can always hide behind them in a gun fight - but the stormtroopers can't for some reason. They must be structural I'm guessing?!

1 minute ago, mjmooney said:

 

First thing that came into my head too. "Purely Democratic" if you allow a foreign government to weaponize a fairly recent technology against your own people. Oh and the winning candidate works in collusion with them. Oh and one of the closest advisors of the winning candidate is spreading misinformation and stoking conspiracy theories with Alex Jones and on twitter. Oh and about 8 members of the winning campaign are now in jail for various criminal acts relating to the foreign government. Apart from the aforementioned closest advisor who the winning candidate instructed the DOJ to clear after he'd installed one of his stooges to run the DOJ.

The most Purely Democratic ever. 

ps There were plenty of Republicans quickly in the boat with him. Maybe some of the less palatable ones in more usual times but remember Trump was coming after Palin (thanks John you muppet) then Bachman etc. And plenty of media for him. Just not the mainstream outlets Fox excluded.

Would have been better if he hadn't given the pen as the pressure we had on them was huge at that point. Waiting around took all of the energy out of the game.

9 minutes ago, TheAuthority said:

We are all over them.

Glad. some of you lot aren't in the stadium to boo our own players.