WTF is happening in the UK?

[Boac]

Very thought provoking video, BM, much to think about. Who is right and who is wrong.

[BenThere]

No machinery manufacturers, no capacity to produce machines, no skilled machine operators, fat chance of returning manufacturing to the US in less than 20 years even if the desire was there.

So what happens in that scenario is that someone figures out how to make a buck when there is a reward out there. I get the idea that the US has gotten flabby on its post-WWII good fortune, but at my core I still have faith that Americans will produce geniuses as they always have to build a better tomorrow. Consider this: The US's highest capital value corporations, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, PayPal, and so many more, didn't exist when I was a teenager. In my parents' generation Ford, GM, IBM, etc., didn't exist either.

The capitalist ethic includes the constant quest for the better mousetrap and somehow the US has shown itself as particularly adept at developing and exploiting it, often to the chagrin of outsiders. While today's disease and economic challenges furrow our brows, I think we're going to come out OK on the other side. Might take a while though.

As a hat tip, my model for perseverance is the UK in the darkest days of WWII. When all was bleak, the Brits didn't give up and prevailed at the end - a magnificent performance and a model for us all.

[boing]

Ben, the best happenstance for US recovery is that everyone else in the World took a hit also so it is a bit of a race to recover with everyone handicapped.

.

[barkingmad]

Meantime, back in the dreary badly-lit room of UK politics, Charmer Starmer is honing his QC skills on a rather easily defeated opponent in the war of words over Covid-19 handling by the bits of what used to be the “UK”.
I cannot understand why Cummings has not supplied him with a rolled up parchment copy of the attached document with which he can whack the Opposition Leader over the head whenever Charmer starts bleating on about different lockdown amendment measures;

https://www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/ ... l--827.pdf

But then that would involve him in breaching the unsocial distancing guidelines of six foot six and three-quarter inches and he might then face a fine...

[Boac]

Don't forget, BM, that devolved power and responsibility does not preclude working together?

[BenThere]

Working together requires both sides to agree to work together for the common good. My take on the US state of that fundamental, good faith commitment is that Republicans want to work in good faith, certainly to bolster their November outcome, while Democrats seem to want the worst outcomes both in the death count and economic catastrophe for their own political ends in November.

As of today, I see a Republican resurgence in November. But that assessment changes as each news cycle rolls by. There is an alarming increase in the percentage of the electorate that poll pro-socialist views. That's what threatens to kill us economically as it did UK post WWII. The upside is that the US has a remarkable capability to resurrect by correcting through elections. We can't let that slip away with current Democrat initiatives to undermine the integrity of our votes.

[barkingmad]

Don't forget, BM, that devolved power and responsibility does not preclude working together?

Correct, but the Viet-Taff and the Scotnats are not going to give up the chance to prove their new ‘powers’ by indulging in a spot of willy-waving, are they?
Granted the measures and communications from BoJo & Co are far from ideal, my point was that if Labour in 1997 had not given in to Nationalism (since Brexit, now it’s a swear word) in order to try to curry favour with the Taff & Jock voters we wouldn’t have the DisUnited Kingdom we have today.
Therefore I believe Charmer Starmer is ingenuous in trying to make the differences ‘twixt the various bits of the country into a political scoring point when it was his lot who made it all possible. Is there some saying about the “law of unintended consequences”?
As doubtless we are seeing with the actual and predicted fallout from the current lockdown.

[Pontius Navigator]

I don't think wee Jimmy can do willy waving.

[barkingmad]

I don't think wee Jimmy can do willy waving.

Wee Nicola Krankie has delegated the willy-waving task to the awful Ian Blackhead, the Scotnats’ permanent ambassador to what’s left of the HoC.
She may not have her own appendage with which to play propellors but I have no doubt Blackfoot is operating IAW her string-pulling!

[Boac]

One would hope is is, as a senior member of her party and her 'representative' in Westminster?

Correct, but the Viet-Taff and the Scotnats are not going to give up the chance to prove their new ‘powers’ by indulging in a spot of willy-waving, are they?

- you are presumably convinced that the panicking Bojo is right and they are wrong? Do you base this judgement on any scientific basis?

[CharlieOneSix]

I'm not an SNP supporter but her daily briefings are an example of how they should be done.
The following is posted in jest.....

ignore.JPG (14.26 KiB) Viewed 223 times

[barkingmad]

boac, you presume wrong, they’re all a shower of sh1te doing their best to score points over a weak leadership in what is described as a national emergency, self-inflicted of course.
Stay alert, protect the NHS, save lives (delay deaths), sabotage the economy, spend feck knows how long trying to recover the economy which is essential for a good NHS.
Repeat as prescribed, especially when the first few infants and toddlers die of Kawasaki and the MSM start baying for blood using emotional blackmail on whichever administration is unlucky enough to be holding the reins when that story takes off.
Alas modern medicine, prodded into some odd practices, seems to be ruled by external forces not of the medics’ making, unless they’re private medicine practitioners who look at the bottom line instead of lining the patients’ bottom with good clinical practice.
Research some of the figures for un-necessary surgical and pharmaceutical treatments in the good old USA and then appreciate just how ‘do no harm’ has faded from dominance over the recent years of medical ‘miracles’?

[BenThere]

So isn't that an argument for paying for your own 'electives'? Reserving insurance/public resources for critical needs, I think, is the best policy path. But you have to pay for that, too.

[OFSO]

Things are returning to normal in London. First item on ITV London news tonight was about a black youth stabbed to death......

[Pontius Navigator]

Ah, but did he died because of Covid Virus?

[Dushan]

Things are returning to normal in London. First item on ITV London news tonight was about a black youth stabbed to death......

Same here. Double murder in Oakville (suburb of Toronto) and a tow-truck driver killed two days ago. Haven’t seen that kind of news in 2 months, and don’t think for a minute that there weren’t any shootings.

[Boac]

Barking - I think I missed the 'scientific basis' in that rant?

[FD2]

Yes - news almost back to normal here too - large car tyre fire, new mural in the city, domestic violence case, did Jacinda let Clarke dye her hair and kids back to school to parents' elation...

[TheGreenGoblin]

Yes - news almost back to normal here too - large car tyre fire, new mural in the city, domestic violence case, did Jacinda let Clarke dye her hair and kids back to school to parents' elation...

I envy you...

[barkingmad]

Barking - I think I missed the 'scientific basis' in that rant?

Precisely, boac, it’s a classic rant, not a scientifically-deduced and peer-reviewed dissertation for my PhD in Social Studies.
That paper will have to wait until after the ‘Blade’ project has been completed and is operating effectively, thereby reducing my excuses to rant and rage against the current insanity. Simples!