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Reply | BIden v Trump - and we thought our options were poor !!
at 07:41 25 Jul 2024
It's interesting to note that this entire thread is devoted to debating personalities. There isn't a single mention about any candidate's policies.
I'm not taking sides here, but it is a bitter pill to swallow for those who support the Democrat side to note that when Trump was in power, American aggression around the world reduced significantly, yet as soon as the Democrats returned to power under Biden, it ramped up again. Despite the climate-altering hot air that is spouted about Trump, despite the utter contempt and hatred that people feel towards him, I have yet to hear a cogent analysis of his actual policies. And here's the absolute irony: if you took the personalities out of the equation, and debated solely on policies, you might find that many Trump-haters agree with him far more than they realise. He is a non-interventionist, and the reason the 'Democrats' despise him so much - IMO - is that they are utterly embedded with the 'military-industrial' complex - the war machine that fuels America's neoliberal cabals. In other words, he actually threatens that gross, bloated, evil cash cow. Yet the narrative is so cleverly manipulated, that people support wars like they support football teams. They assume Ukraine v Russia is just a simple black and white issue: Russia bad, Ukraine good, without considering that this is yet another American proxy war, like all the others they have waged over the decades. The American war MO is so blatantly obvious, yet people seem to fall for it again and again: Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ukraine....... what are those all about at the end of the day? That's right: money. So isn't it ironic that it is not the Democrat party that wants to end this hideous process, it's Trump? And I say Trump advisedly, because until he came along, the Republicans were just as bad: look at the Bush presidencies.
As others have pointed out, what really troubles the political classes on both sides of the house in America, is that Trump is a maverick, who is not (apparently) signed up to the same plan that either side love. So even if you absolutely despise Donald Trump, as i know many of you do, it might be interesting for you to reflect on his non-interventionist stance. |
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Reply | BIden v Trump - and we thought our options were poor !!
at 22:59 23 Jul 2024
Mind you, I thought a lot of what she said in her speech was total BS. Especially about Biden. But she's a consummate performer, very slick.
Politics huh. Dontcha just love it?
Not really.
PS - yes, I know I'm contradicting myself!
[Post edited 23 Jul 23:03]
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Reply | BIden v Trump - and we thought our options were poor !!
at 22:41 23 Jul 2024
Here's a conspiracy theory, if you like; it's occurred to me (and I'm obviously not the only one), that perhaps this was the plan all along: to get Kamala elected as President. Perhaps that's why the pretence around Joe Biden went on for so long; because they wanted to wait until the last possible moment to spring this on the American public... and let's face it, the evidence was there to see for years, that Biden was doddering, probably senile, and certainly not fit to fulfill the role of President of the United States. But pretty much the entire media went along with this quasi cover-up of the reality (or pretence, if you prefer), that Biden was ok.
So why did they drag this out for so long? In a sense, it's a political masterstroke, because it completely wrong-foots the opposition and gives the Trump team a completely different problem to deal with that they possibly didn't have a plan for.
At the same time, Trump was, until today, riding on a cresting wave of support since his attempted assassination. All of a sudden, the power of that narrative has switched to Kamala - temporarily perhaps, but for a moment, at least - and with such a short time to go before the election - it gives her incredible impetus and little time for negative scrutiny. If she and her team handle it right, this will go to the wire.
And I have to admit, I'm impressed by Kamala Harris. She's a smart, ballsy lady, from what I've seen recently. A formidable opponent. The US presidential election just got a whole lot more interesting. [Post edited 23 Jul 22:42]
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Reply | BIden v Trump - and we thought our options were poor !!
at 20:45 23 Jul 2024
Kamala starting on the front foot:
Kamala Harris called Donald Trump a liar, a fraudster and a cheat in her first rally since taking over the Democratic presidential campaign from Joe Biden.
Speaking in Milwaukee, the vice-president used her record as a state prosecutor to draw a comparison between herself and Trump.
“I was elected Attorney General of the State of California and I was a corporate prosecutor before that, and in those roles I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” she said.
“Predators who abused women, fraudster who ripped off consumers, and cheaters who broke the rules for their gain.
“So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type.”
Trump has a fight on his hands.
From: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/07/23/donald-trump-joe-biden-kamala |
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Reply | Transfer rumours 2024
at 20:26 23 Jul 2024
That's a brilliant analysis. Gotta say, I like the look of this lad, and as Sam says, he fits perfectly in Marti's preferred 4-1-4-1 system. A younger Isaac Hayden in many ways.
This joined-up thinking between the board and the manager and the coaching staff is slightly blowing my mind. |
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Reply | Book recommendation
at 15:37 23 Jul 2024
Can you let us know what you think of Prophet Song when you've finished it? |
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Reply | Where are all the insects?
at 15:31 23 Jul 2024
All this has made me recall the fiendish development of pesticide resistant GMO crops, in particular by Monsanto/Bayer, so that the farmer uses their specific brand pesticides on them, destroying pretty much everything else growing in the process.
They've also designed GM crops that won't seed, so once you're signed up to them, you have to buy the seeds off Monsanto/Bayer every year, in perpetuity. Bill Gates has been a massive promoter of GM foods around the world. Their use in India caused absolute devastation, with 100s of 1000s of farmers losing their livelihoods in the process.
We need to work with nature, not against it. and I have to say the same thing applies to natural immunity. Natural is always best!! |
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Reply | Where are all the insects?
at 15:12 23 Jul 2024
I didn't know the neonicotinoid ban had been rescinded Arfar, that's fcked.
We've got a hell of a long way to go before our farming is sorted out in this country. As for Roundup/glycophosphate, I managed to stop a neighbour using it, explaining the harm it does, but most people are still ignorant/oblivious. A friend and fellow R managed to stop everyone on his allotments using it, but there definitely needs to be nationwide education about all this. As DMM says, without the bees (and other pollinators) we are fcked. |
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Reply | Where are all the insects?
at 11:00 23 Jul 2024
From the Telegraph yesterday:
"Jeremy Clarkson has said “something is afoot” as he raised alarm over plummeting butterfly sightings this year.
The Top Gear presenter turned farmer said that he was “a bit alarmed by how few butterflies there are” on a walk around his farm in the Cotswolds.
The Butterfly Conservation Trust said there were notably fewer butterflies so far this year, which it blamed on colder temperatures and heavy rain.
About 12 per cent of participants in the first week of its annual butterfly count reported no sightings at all, the trust said. During the count, participants are asked to record the number and species of butterflies they see in a 15-minute period.
England had 97 per cent of its average July rainfall in just the first two weeks, following the wettest 18 months on record, and the summer has so far been cooler than average.
Tony Juniper, the chairman of Natural England, said the drought in 2022 may also have played a part in an overall drop in insect numbers this year.
“A lot of food plants that insects relied on died during that very severe drought and heatwave, so there’s probably some quite long-term factors in here,” he said.
He added that the drop in butterfly numbers was particularly noticeable because of a decline in insect populations going back over decades.
About 80 per cent of butterflies in the UK have declined since the 1970s, the Butterfly Conservation Trust has warned, largely because of increased pesticide use and loss of habitat.
“This year’s impact is hitting already depleted populations, and that’s of concern, not only in terms of the insects themselves, but also the pollination services they provide,” Mr Juniper said.
“They are also a critical food source for many birds and mammals, with bats now being reported as being underweight this year, as a result of having insufficient food. Insects are really the linchpin of ecosystems, I sometimes call them ecological glue.”
Conservation groups point to a decline in insect populations going back over decades
He added: “I do hope that we can see a reversal of this trend going forward. But we’re going to have to really think about the underlying issues here – lack of habitat, poor-quality habitat and also the effects of pollution, including pesticides.”
Mr Juniper said gardeners could do their best to boost insect numbers by “moving beyond our culture of tidiness”.
“If you have a garden, having wild spaces with more native flowering plants and non-native nectiverous plants can be quite good,” he said. “But also things upon which butterflies can lay eggs, like nettles.”
Emma Butler of the Butterfly Conservation Trust said that the best time to see butterflies this year was “when the sun is shining between the main showers”.
Mr Clarkson has previously raised concerns over the lack of visible insects around his farm, Diddly Squat, but has talked about losing 10 acres of crops when he cut down on the use of neonicotinoids, a pesticide known to be harmful to bees.
He has rejected using organic methods on his farm, arguing that the poor soil makes it a nonstarter, but has embraced the use of more regenerative methods, which reduce pesticides."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/22/jeremy-clarkson-raises-alarm-over-bu |
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Reply | Where are all the insects?
at 20:59 22 Jul 2024
It definitely is a thing, a recent article in the Guardian :
"Anyone with even a passing interest in the natural world will have noticed a dramatic phenomenon this year: a lack of insects. Perhaps most noticeable is the near-absence of butterflies. Species that are usually common, such as large and small whites, small tortoiseshells, gatekeepers, ringlets, peacocks and meadow browns, are in many places down to the point of having almost disappeared. This is certainly the case where I live, in Cambridge.
Bee populations seem to be down here, too, with flowery margins that would at this time of year normally be alive with pollinators now eerily quiet. Hoverflies are depleted, moths scarce and aphids have either appeared very late or not at all. Buddleia bushes, with their fragrant mauve flowers that are usually festooned with butterflies, moths and many other insects, sit naked of their normal visitors.
There are several probable reasons for this sudden reduction compared with typical summers. The weather has not helped, with a cool and wet spring across much of the country suppressing insect numbers. But even with that factored in, this year’s sudden drop comes after many years of much longer-term decline.
When I was a child travelling in a car during the summer, journeys were accompanied by windscreen collisions with all kinds of insects – moths, beetles, butterflies, aphids, lacewings, craneflies and more. When we stopped, a clean of the front windscreen was often required, as the invertebrate debris overwhelmed the washers and wipers.
These days, drivers can cross the entire country and finish their journey with a clean screen. It’s true that cars are more streamlined and that some small flying creatures will whiz past rather than being hit, but numberplates are still as flat and as lethal as they ever were, and from those we have some data.
Surveys going back 20 years to 2004 reveal a sharp drop in the number of insects found splattered on numberplates in the UK. The scale of decline is staggering, with evidence gathered from numberplates showing a drop of 78% between then and 2023. Such findings place this year’s sudden insect decline into the context of a longer-term trend and show how erratic weather patterns are hitting already depleted populations.
Going back further, by about a century, the drop is likely to be far larger still. Dave Goulson, one of the UK’s leading entomologists, estimates that insect populations compared with a century ago are 90% to 95% down. That was not caused by one wet spring: it is the result of a combination of factors that include the rise of ever more intensive farming, habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, pollution and the impacts of climate breakdown.
Aside from the depressing silence and stillness of gardens, woods, hedgerows and grasslands, there are more practical implications. For example, many of our crop plants – including oilseed rape, tomatoes, apples and strawberries – depend on wild insects to pollinate them. Insects are also the food source of many mammals and birds that are also in decline. In the spring I also noticed the dawn chorus was much depleted, with one possible reason for that being insect scarcity.
The present position will hopefully be temporary but is nonetheless a wake-up call about the scale of losses that have taken place in recent decades. With ambitious legal targets set out in the Environment Act, including to halt species decline by 2030, and an international commitment to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by the same year, it is very clear that major change is needed now. It is pleasing to see that the incoming government has a sense of the challenge in front of us and has committed to positive measures, such as changing existing policies on emergency authorisations for neonicotinoid pesticides.
We will need to go further, though, including shifting the culture that favours neat and tidy verges, edges and hedges to create wilder gardens and bigger, better and more connected natural habitats. And we need to reduce pesticide use more broadly – not only in farming but in gardens and parks. All that will be needed not only to stem long-term decline but to create the resilience that our wildlife at present lacks, and which will be needed more and more as climate breakdown leads to more extreme weather.
One thing that we can all do to help is to get out and gather more information. This weekend the annual Big Butterfly Count gets under way, helping people survey their local area as part of a vital national counting exercise – a fantastic example of citizen science in action.
Nature is not just a nice thing to have: it is vital for our national health, wealth and security. Our butterflies and other insects are telling us something rather important."
Tony Juniper is chair of Natural England and author of What Has Nature Ever Done for Us?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/13/butterflies-summer [Post edited 22 Jul 21:00]
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Reply | BIden v Trump - and we thought our options were poor !!
at 19:18 22 Jul 2024
Actually I am not "justifying [my] arguments (what arguments?) by random things [I'm] googling" because I have in fact been aware of the exploits of "creepy Joe" (as he has been known since way back) for many years, long before he became president. What I was doing was showing you that it's very easy to find reports of his behaviour, quite simply because there are so many of them.
However, you are trying to justify his behaviour, based on some random thoughts about why he might have been doing it. So thanks for your advice, but Biden has a huge amount of form on this.
Surely you're not surprised. The abuse of power by men is rife in politics as much as anywhere. From Bill Clinton with Monica Lewinsky, his record of flights to Epstein's island, his and his wife's close association with Harvey Weinstein, to Trump's various, nefarious activities, to Andrew Windsor, and so, so many more. It's an ugly business. [Post edited 22 Jul 19:22]
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Reply | Where are all the insects?
at 18:23 22 Jul 2024
Actually that's not strictly the case today. There was a terrifying lack of any insect splats when I drove to Cornwall in 2014. Especially compared to the days when you could barely see through your windscreen. However, I am pleased to report than on my drive down there in May, there were a decent number of splats. I think the ban on neonicotinoid pesticides has definitely helped here. There are still far fewer than the 70s, 80s and 90s, but it has improved a bit. Still a long way to go though. Huge monoculture fields are a big part of the problem, creating the ecological equivalent of deserts all over our countryside. We need to return to a far more mixed farming profile ASAP.
Interestingly Clarkson has done a lot to highlight this issue and raise awareness. Love him or loathe him, the Clarkson's Farm series is making a difference. [Post edited 22 Jul 19:29]
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Reply | BIden v Trump - and we thought our options were poor !!
at 18:16 22 Jul 2024
US secret service director gets seriously hauled over the coals at the Senate enquiry into the attempted assassination, including being told she is "full of shit." Hardcore public interrogation.
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Reply | Where are all the insects?
at 17:58 22 Jul 2024
Okay, I have just done a tour of the neighbourhood in the interests of research and the LFW community. I walked 2.9 miles (according to my phone) through W9, W10 and NW10.
I tried to cross the canal at Ha'penny Steps, but they were closed off by police tape and there were police all over the place on the south side, because of the young lad who was murdered there yesterday afternoon. So instead I worked my way around to Great Western Road, over the bridge and down into Meanwhile Gardens. By this stage, I still hadn't seen a single fly, bee, hoverfly, or butterfly in any of the gardens, not even on the stands of buddleia dotted here and there. I did see one large wasp. So I thought I would go and see what was happening in the community gardens where there are full time gardeners. I popped my head into their shed and said: where are all the bees!
They laughed and said, you're the third person who's asked that today!
So it's not just me then. However one of the gardeners said 'come with me' and she showed me around the insect friendly beds, where I am happy to report I saw loads of bees, hoverflies, some cabbage whites, a mayfly and even a red admiral. We then discussed the issues of the lack of insects in the rest of the area. She put it down to a combination of no bee friendly flowers, weather and... "something going on with the bees...''
I continued my walk along the canal to Ladbroke Grove, nearly getting run over several times by maniac cyclists, and then to Kensal Green cemetery, in the hope of continuing my research there, but I discovered that the East Gate is closed at 4.30 pm. On my way back, I paid homage to our beloved club by visiting the site of our formation at St Jude's Institute (now St Jude's Hall) on the corner of Ilbert Street and 4th Avenue. In Queen's Park Gardens opposite I saw plenty of bees and other insects in the wildflower beds, but everywhere else I walked was strangely barren of insect life, apart from one hollyhock filled garden, which sported a solitary bumble bee.
So all in all, an inconclusive survey. Summat's up, I tell thee. Good to read all of your reports above though.
[Post edited 22 Jul 18:03]
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Reply | Where are all the insects?
at 16:04 22 Jul 2024
That's good to know. I'm genuinely concerned. I mean normally in the front garden there would be plenty buzzing around and lots of flies in the kitchen. There are none. |
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Reply | BIden v Trump - and we thought our options were poor !!
at 16:02 22 Jul 2024
Yeah, ole Joe is/was a totally stand up guy (has anyone actually heard a resignation speech or any comment about it from the president of the USA, by the way? Not just reports, the actual bloke speaking about it? )
Anyway, just from a cursory search:
"Eight women, including Reade, have accused Biden of touching them inappropriately or invading their personal space in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. Seven of the women said Biden's behavior did not amount to sexual harassment or assault.
Biden released a two-minute video after the initial allegations were made public in April 2019, but he was criticized for giving what critics deemed a "non-apology apology," in which he said he would try to do better moving forward. He later said he's "not sorry for anything that I've ever done."
The Delaware Democrat was further criticized for repeatedly making light of the allegations, and for commenting on the physical appearance of young girls he met on the 2020 campaign trail.
https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-biden-allegations-women-2020-campaign-2019-6
And...
https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/bidens-nibble-on-young-g
That's just a quick glance search. Tip of the iceberg? |
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Thread | Where are all the insects?
at 15:54 22 Jul 2024
It's the height of summer. Usually there are loads of insects buzzing around, especially flies. Right now, in the corner of West London, there are none.
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Reply | Half decent tv
at 14:44 22 Jul 2024
It's a bloody travesty, John!
So much dross made, yet The Peripheral, one of the best sci-fi dramas I've ever seen, is canned after one season. We could probably start a separate thread on favourite series that didn't get a second (or third) season, like Being Human, with Karl Urban (he of The Boys fame), which again I thought was absolutely brilliant.... no second season. Aagghh! |
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