In the news

Sure, but to be useful to influential people over a period of time there usually needs to be something there.

And there also has to be some assessment that your judgement won't be called into question if you promote them to a powerful position (ahem, Home Secretary) and they turn out to be useless at it.

You'd think. But people who have actually met her really do think that she's a moron.

Maybe that's what she wants them to think.

Is the simplest explanation that she's actually a moron?

Maybe so and her role is to simply let the people underneath her get on with it unfettered.

It doesn't have to be brains. Thick skin, the c0mpetitive drive to win turf battles in and outside the party, and the willingness to say the nonsensical in the face of the media go a long way.

In South Carolina, a man tried to hire the local Klan chapter to kill his African-American neighbour.

His defence attorney says race had nothing to do with it; the neighbour was just annoying. "Brandon called the KKK because who else was he going to call?"

Whut?

She says "victims of counter terrorism" and "he had a history with counter terror offences" and "counter terror offenders". Basically instead of "terrorism", she says "counter terrorism", like 20 times

Edit: https://www.rt.com/uk/479944-patel-streatham-counter-terrorist/ - sorry it's RT, but the only other option was the Daily Mail

And the auto-generated subtitles on the YouTube video linked on the previous page are pretty accurate

interviewer: "do you believe this begs some very fundamental questions..."

hnnnnn fucking gggggg.

who else was he going to call?

Ghostbusters?

interviewer: "do you believe this begs some very fundamental questions..."

hnnnnn fucking gggggg

Yeah, that fucked me off too. Although, ironically, they are actually begging the question in that question.

Stop the world, I want to get off.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-04/man-creates-fake-traffic-jam-on-google-maps-by-carting-99-phones/11929136
http://www.simonweckert.com/googlemapshacks.html

So RT is better than the DM?

Discuss...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/04/i-am-not-a-slapper-labour-mp-tracy-brabin-defends-her-commons-attire

Pete Buttigieg looks like the next big thing, could be the one to take Trump on and win. Interesting person.

Reminds me of this Jam sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGex0kLgNok

(Bonus Fila Brazillia as the soundtrack)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/04/camerons-bodyguard-suspended-for-leaving-gun-in-plane-toilet

Okay so he made a mistake and is paying for it. The thing I don’t get is why he was carrying Dave’s passport. Is the UK tax payer really paying for what I assume is quite expensive security so they can also act as his personal assistant?

He's quite an impressive candidate. Don't know too much beyond the headlines though. It was a headline about his language skills that first drew my attention to him.

One thing I did see is that he will struggle to get the BME vote, didn't see why though. Hopefully he's not a racist.

I was listening to an interview where he implied that he gains strong support from black voters (as it's been them in particular it's suggested don't support him) where they listen to him or read what he stands for (the city he was mayor of is 26% African American). He indicated the worry was journalists repeating his "struggle", and turning it into a self-fulfilling prophecy where people who don't know who he is ignore his message as "he isn't for our people".

Sadly, it's the way politics are at the moment really. Don't bother reading the actual message, just regurgitated sound-bites and "summaries" from whatever media people get their news from. My guess is that if he does well, you'll find Trump supporting organisations aggressively pushing that message via targeted facebook advertising.

Don't bother reading the actual message, just regurgitated sound-bites and "summaries" from whatever media people get their news from.

Ha. Basically exactly what I just did.

I also wouldn't be entirely surprised if his Democratic opponents are pushing this as clearly, as a candidate he obviously appeals to the "traditional" white American voter. Military service, clean cut, christian etc and if, as he suggests, his policies are going to be of equal interest to BME Americans as well then they need to do something to disconnect him from those voters.

In honesty, I think that's a big issue with the Democrats. They provide loads of ammo for the Republicans themselves during the race for the nomination.

I don’t get is why he was carrying Dave’s passport

I assume they pass through the airport using a special route to be able to board with a gun. It might help to have all documents in one place when going through the pre-boarding checks. They are basically an odd family.

Depends on whether you think DM is state sponsored propaganda I think.

RT is unquestionably a part of the Russian state, the DM is in some ways arguably above the state.

Depends on whether you think DM is state sponsored propaganda I think.

Well, that's not the only factor to determine whether I'd go with one source over the other though. As a slightly ridiculous extreme example, I'd still trust RT over some Stormfront news bulletin.

as a candidate he obviously appeals to the "traditional" white American voter. Military service, clean cut, christian etc

Are you talking about Buttigieg? You don't think him being gay will put them off?

Isn't most of our media either Russian or Australian owned anyway? In that case, not above anything but the highest bidder...