Rayvin

Every now and then the guardian accidentally publishes a really good article, and I think this is one of them. It's not about the UK, or the West or our politics - it's about Pakistan and the problems they have, expressed in this case through a religiously motivated murder. But the overall point made is as true here as it is anywhere in the world: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/10/rage-men-lynching-priyantha-kumara-pakistan-india “What counts today, the question which is looming on the horizon,” wrote the political philosopher Frantz Fanon, “is the need for a redistribution of wealth. Humanity must reply to this question or be shaken to pieces by it.” The collective rage shimmering in the subcontinent is set against a paper-thin political fragility: the fragility of our leaders, small men who cannot stomach criticism or make the effort to care for a wounded and terrified citizenry; the fragility of majorities who refuse to cede any ground to minorities; the fragility of damaged men whose hearts are broken and cannot express themselves except through unhinged acts of cruelty; and the fragility of the rich who are blind to the anxieties of the dispossessed all around them.

I had an antivaxxer tell me, with no sense of irony, that we were now living in vaccination based apartheid. That the vaccine makes no discernible difference to transmission rates, and that the measures we're putting into place are all part of a bid to control us. This is, in any other conversation, a pretty smart human being. He doesn't trust the scientific community, thinks there's some grand conspiracy there, that publishers are intentionally preventing anti-vaccine knowledge coming to the fore, and that you can't trust the process. In defence of that latter point, he did have an example to back it up which threw me a bit - Elsevier published and then pulled down a paper on how there was evidence to suggest that myocarditis was being triggered in young boys, by the vaccine. The paper passed peer review, was published, and then unceremoniously pulled down at the journal editor's behest with no reason given to the authors. So ok, it's the journal editor rather than the publisher, but it's still problematic and regrettably feeds right into his narrative. Obviously if there really was a nefarious agenda, it wouldn't have been published in the first place - still though. Shit like this eats away at people's trust in the process.

That is probably my favourite goal of all time, for all the reasons you've said really. It was fucking ludicrous. We've seen some special goals at this club and some mean more than others. This one wasn't that important but I will never forget it as long as I live. I'll be showing the grandkids one day, no doubt.

It's going to be the bottom three plus Watford, a mini-league that we have to win. Can't see anything else at this point.

Is he cynical enough to do that? Yes. Would any self respecting medical professional do so? You'd hope not.

That photo is probably on the wall above his bed - he'll look at it every day to remind himself that he's a winner.

Google says he's 5"6. That is below average iirc. Doesn't seem -that- bad though

I mean, that fella next to him doesn't look that 'average' either mind Unless Sunak is warping my perception of the whole image.

Sunak's the most credible person they've got though. I think Gove's star has fallen these days and frankly there's a real dearth of talent anywhere near the front bench. Patel might fancy herself for it, she's certainly primed her audience on the immigration stuff. But she is of course a woman, and a person of colour, so she'd have the biggest mountain to climb.

Surely he's not going to be brought down over wallpaper. Is it really that big a deal? I mean I'd love to see him go but it doesn't feel like an earth shaking one.

I've had this on the radar for a while, don't see any reason not to since it's inevitably the direction of travel that society is going to head down. Quite keen on the idea of intelligent lighting systems generally as I'm quite mood sensitive on light. As for being spied on, they know everything anyway man - and what could possibly be going on in your home that is more shameful than your internet search history?

That's less about the "joy" of them getting married and more about getting digs in at their ex-spouses ffs I cannot imagine ever being conceited enough to have something so pathetic written about my wedding.

EDIT - Isegrim beat me to it. We should all appreciate that if the Cabinet Secretary, a man who may well have been at the party himself, finds any evidence that this party happened, the Met will further consider the situation, and that they will work tirelessly to find a new reason not to do their jobs.

I thought it was a good article too tbh - although the fact that he has this consultancy team working for him in order to help him manage his own development is pretty unique I thought

See, attitudes like this will be the death of journalism and the media more generally. If only someone who worked in such industries was present to set out how problematic your request is

Given how this is going, it'll end with a photo of Boris dressed fully as santa claus with a couple of young Tory interns on each knee underneath a banner saying "No. 10 Christmas Party 2020"

Cummings must be loving this

I'll believe it when I see it but I agree, that should be game over.

"Born to rule" is still very much a thing in this country, sadly. That said, how many smart and compassionate people would choose to go into politics anyway?

Have to say, if we had to go bankrupt I'd not be opposed to taking Saudi Arabia with us.

Given that it was Crystal Palace who kicked a lot of this off when they were on a relative high earlier in the season, I think you could be right. I mean truthfully I can see all of them trying to stand in our way here for one reason or another. It's fairly pathetic but if we manage to start going past some of these teams in terms of our relative success over time, they'll ease off.

Have we even been seriously linked with anyone in the PL besides Lingard?

So the contention is that junior staff members banded together to have a party at No. 10 without his knowledge, or the knowledge of anyone who had his ear. This is the place where he works/lives/whatever day to day. And he didn't know about it. They just did it on their own without anyone saying anything. Is that really what he's saying?

If that tweet is in any way representative of how his mind works, it explains pretty much everything about why we're in the mess we are.