Be Excellent To Each Other

Jenrick v Badenoch

Not exactly a clash of great minds.

Astonished that the only grown up in the field was eliminated.

They weren't acting Cleverly. Arf.

Go to your room and consider what you have done

I think I'm looking forward to the US election in the same way I approach dental work.
It's going to be painful and not particularly pleasant, with a lot of spit at the end.

I can’t even imagine how things will go if DT gets back in.

Trump is just so very unpresidential. Tweeting that he hates Taylor Swift and making up shit on the fly. I still see him more as Trump's useful idiot rather than a man with any real vision.

He's just got this vibe that somebody could give him a 15 second elevator pitch about a really complex topic and Trump would just go 'yes, let's do that.'

Also, where you hear him saying 'there are people in the Democratic Party that want to destroy this country' or whatever. It's like shut up, you chief.

Chief is my favourite '80s insult and I'm bringing it back.

Or even if he loses. The aftermath of he 2020 election was bad enough, and then there was the attempted coup.

I really thought four years ago that we'd never have to see, hear, or think about the orange one and his adoring nutjobs again (sigh).

I know that the opposition there have to be really careful about saying this but realistically anyone who votes for Trump is an absolute fucking cunt.

I dunno, I tend to think that he's the cunt and his supporters are delusional.

US politics is an absolute shambles. I've watched several documentaries over the last few weeks which show that the whole thing is just batshit crazy. Trump appears to have managed to persuade the huge Evangelical Christian contingent that he's God's chosen one and they lap up all his bullshit, against all the evidence that it IS bullshit. That's the only explanation I can think of for supporting him after you see all the shit he makes up as he goes along.

How can they justify waiting to sentence him for his crimes until after the election, when they know that the Supreme Court has basically ruled that he can just pardon himself if he wins? It's bonkers.

I've always thought that beyond race, gender, sexuality etc etc there are really just two types of people. People who are sound and people who are cunts. Covid really emphasised it though. You had normal, nice people who kept their mask on followed the rules because it was the right thing to do and dickheads out there didn't care. They got back out there and did whatever they wanted. And they realised they weren't alone. There were suddenly loads of them because the were emboldened by each other. They could all act like cunts because there were so many of them.

No-one loves Trump, they love the idea that the president could be one of them. An angry dickhead with next to no humanity. He's just a license to act like a wanker.

There was a horrible news story a year ago or whatever. Some network of monkey torturers. The main guy got arrested and they put up his photo. The room was covered in Trump posters. Does a monkey torturer want Trump to improve the country, to make it great etc etc? Or does he just want a dickhead to be in charge to legitimise his own dickheadedness.

The US electoral system, with the electoral colleges and stuff, doesn't seem great to me, and I was a bit confused, so I found a nice description: https://kz.usembassy.gov/summary-of-the ... n-process/

It's hard for a basic person like me to grasp that it's possible to win the most votes but still lose the election. I expect there's no perfect system, but this seems like one of the least-good. I'm too stupid to understand much of it (and too lazy to try all that hard), and while it's better to have a vote than nothing, it doesn't feel like each vote, from an individual perspective, means all that much.

Priti Patel is back in a big chair!

Kindle daily deals getting in the mood:

Haha, amazing.

Can’t wait for Lenny to lead the uprising.

The 20% VAT on private school fees coupled that with the added NI burden on those schools and it's quite the hike in fees being passed on. As a result, there's lots of kids leaving the school our friends kids are at, and the local state schools are already over subscribed. They're talking of moving away from the area entirely, which is a big step.

Good work, Labour!

It would be interesting to see how many. I mean I get that there might be one or two where the parents are on the bare bones of their arse, sacrificing all to just about afford to be able send their kids to a posh school but "lots" of them, hmm.

Whadda we reckon for the States then?

I’m going with Kamala and her winning by a surprisingly large amount. Over 300 EC votes.

Obv shenanigans will follow from Trump.

Same, it's not as close as the media are making out.

I can't watch, just going to hibernate from the news until its done.

Thousands.
Also, the famously well off councils take a hit for SEND provisions, then that comes out of the education budgets too.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/private-schoo ... nt-on-vat/

Let me whip out my tiny violin

Yes, this is a rich lot who can easily publicise their 'woes', so it can seem like loads of people. And the FT, then others, did a very good job in making it absolutely clear that 40-70 private schools closing every year is an average year. Plus unfortunately, unlike the gilded private sector, it's just normal that the state doesn't have the resources and copes.

Friends of mine whose daughter goes to a private school say "Of course we should be paying VAT. And she loves it there, so even if we couldn't afford it, we'd find a way." Full stop, no caveats.

Plus, of course, those rich people who believe in capitalism will be fully aware that the move will cause schools to look carefully at whether they can mitigate the impact (or 'not pass the 20% on'), and they will become more efficient as a result. Those that can't, weren't efficient enough anyway. The fires of competition, allowed to do their work for a change.

I reckons Trump's win. I can't see the US stomaching a non white female in the big chair.

I'm going for a very very close Kamala win, after a month of arguing about some insignificant district in Georgia or somewhere.

At best she might scrape through, but I think four more years of the orange turd are more likely.

I mean there's half a GIANT COUNTRY of people who should be voting for their right to choose what happens to their bodies. This shouldn't even be close.

Plus, I bet Trump's paid for a bunch of abortions over the years.

I was fairly sure he wouldn't get in first time, and I called that wrong.

I was fairly sure that Remain would win the brexit vote, and I called that wrong.

I was hoping that the Australians would vote 'Yes' to the indigenous voice to parliament, but I got that wrong too.


I reckon Trump might edge it, and I really hope I'm wrong there. But just, fuck, that place seems like one big mess.

On the plus side, the Local council elections that happened recently seemed to go far more in line with what I was hoping.

Instead of the previous bunch of rich old white men, the new mayor is a young white family man, and there are some white women on the council. I'm hoping that this leads to some positive changes after the 'scandal' and ill feeling from the previous council and the following administration.

Trump's campaign this time around has been a dead duck. Stumping to paid crowds and half empty venues. It feels like the campaign is being run to keep Trump happy even though his campaign staff know it's a lost cause. There aren't any floating voters who'll jump for Trump this time around.

Frankly however, America is just one great big reason that getting the Puritans to all get in a boat and fuck off was one of the best ideas this country has ever had.

This is the thing that always gets me. Private tuition being VAT-exempt is 100 percent inexcusable. There's no possible reason for it - and the response that parents won't be able to afford it and will swamp the state system doesn't change that fundamental fact.

Looking at the live updates online is unsettling me, perhaps I should stop doing it.

I have to wonder how much the reporting on polls in the run up to the election influences the election itself.