In further news, Luke was suspended around the 5th February, but his profile didn't become 'hidden' until about 10 days later. His profile hasn't been deleted.
Butcher last posted on the 20th February, but no news on whether he's hidden his profile, or if it's been deleted.
And it's just occurred to me that I think all three were vocal Russophiles. Perhaps that might be a potential legal sticky wicket for the site owners in the same way that J6 talk was at the time.
I had forgotten that some blogs had been deleted recently, too.
Come to think of it, whatsername, TenofCups may have had her last blog go kapoof! and I haven't seen her since. It was funny watching her desperately trying to pick a fight and no one biting, so I don't know why that one disappeared. Maybe she deleted it herself in embarrassment.
I'm thinking Spitz is likely right, though - CS is spring cleaning.
I know who did report the regular blogger you allude to, Chat, and it wasn't you and it wasn't me.
I think the initial report was on the basis of the aforementioned blogger calling other members 'wankers' repeatedly, but given Butcher disappeared at the same time and both profiles have gone dark, I wonder if there might be more behind their disappearance than punitive measures for one of them name-calling.
Perhaps the initial complaint raised the site's awareness, but with an election looming (remember our political blog ban post J6?)and CS trying to fatten their coffers with their 'premium' jiggery pokery, maybe some of the stuff going on wasn't a good look/legally kosher for the site owners to allow.
Ultimately, if a certain person hadn't taken to calling people a wanker quite so frequently that it looked like he was signing his name at the end of every comment, that certain person might still be here merrily poking his own personal bear (who may, or may not have been self-pleasuring.)
If my comment left you feeling defensive, I apologise, but I'm a bit confused.
Why do you raise awareness about political prisoners in Russia to people like us who can't vote in Russian elections?
And didn't you say to me when I asked how we might contribute to resolving this issue, 'live well'?
I'm trying to raise your awareness about the consequences of the new rulings in the US and how it has it's roots in reaffirming second class citizenship for women and people of colour.
I'm loathe to enter into a discussion about abortion on this blog as it would be off topic.
However, I don't think you are registering the implications of abortion bills that are 'life begins at conception' restrictive, nor the true underlying motivation for creating those restrictions in the US.
I stopped watching the video you cited at, "Our national security is compromised."
A random statement with no explanation in the context of Trump's 31 charges under the Espionage Act has no credibility in terms of supporting Trump and as such, neither does the video.
I think you also misinterpret emotions if you view Biden's speech as 'angry'. It's much more nuanced and varied than that.
I have no idea how much of the SOTU address was accurate, nor whether it was mere rhetoric. The salient point is that he appears to be employing more intelligent tactics than Trump in the way he not only presents himself, but presents the electorate to themselves.
But who knows, maybe people being told they're shit and the country is shit is where the majority of Americans feel most emotionally familiar and comfortable and that will win through.
If you see a clip of him when he was younger, the contrast is stark. Because of his media exposure, any decline is incremental and less obvious, like the difference between seeing a growing child every day and once a year.
Trump has been exhibiting signs of paraphasia for a long time. The muddling of 'oranges' and 'origins' springs to mind, particularly his confusion/frustration/discomfort at the time, like he sport of knew it was wrong, but the right word wouldn't come to him.
I also read/heard somewhere recently that Trump's partying in the 80's/90's involved cocaine.
Episodic memory relates to autobiographical events such as your first kiss, your wedding, or maybe your first presidential campaign and who it was against. It's about 'remembering', rather than 'knowing' (semantic memory) and creates a sense of self.
It struck me reading this, specifically 'self-awareness' that Trump's narcissism may interact with other cognitive issues. Going back to episodic memory above, those with a severe lack of empathy often have difficulty developing a sense of self without the context of a sense of others.
Being booed at the Sneaker Con, getting a low percentage of the primary votes for an incumbent(ish), the prospect of having his wealth (or lack thereof) exposed, the prospect of losing his businessman image and therefore his sense of self, the prospect of going to prison for the rest of his natural life, a loss of control...all these things may interact with his specific narcissistic personality traits creating a lot of internal conflict and stress.
I'm not trying to diagnose Trump by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just toying with the idea that he might have several issues that are all interacting under extreme stress.
With her 'life begins at conception' attitude towards abortion with no exceptions, not for rape, not for incest/child pregnancy, not if a woman dies in agony leaving her other children orphaned?
That's not just a personal attitude of hers, that's the bill she tried to push through in her home state to force every other woman into a position of second class citizenship by not being allowed to have an opinion, or say in her own medical care.
I'm loving the way the Republican half of the room and Supreme Court justices are all sitting there, arms crossed and scowling like spoilt children and the Democrats are acting like they've got fleas biting their arses, jumping up every five seconds and yelling.
I probably shouldn't find it so funny, should I?
I have to say Joe Biden is playing a clever hand of cards there. He's upbeat, passionate and generous with his praise of others against a backdrop of Trump's negative, selfish style.
It's a bit of a 'We will fight them on the beaches...' kind of a speech, eh?
Whoa! I just got to the bit where Biden promised passionately and authoritatively to restore Roe vs Wade...and the then camera panned to a very huffy looking Supreme Court in the audience.
I've just started watching it and two things strike me about the prologue:
It's predominantly older women and women of colour wearing white. I wonder if younger white women haven't the same historical reference points to conceptualise how the US has just made women second class citizens. Women are no longer considered capable of making decisions in the same way as men are in the US.
Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty chuffed that there are generations of women who maybe don't carry the burden of oppression to the full extent that older women and women of colour do. By the same token, I'm not sure they realise what's hit them yet and that pains me.
The second thing is how happy and affectionate the response is to Biden's entrance is. They all want to touch him and speak with him which has surprised me given his 'creepy Joe' reputation. He's practically getting mauled out there.
The Biden smiles and his giving out warmth in the face of adoration are in stark contrast to the Mussolini downturned mouth sneers that Trump does when he's taking adoration to bolster his own sense of self-worth.
Trump gatherings are rather menacing by contrast.
None of this should be a surprise and yet it is. I think I have become desensitised to some aspects of the social dynamic in the US simply because so much has become normalised that really shouldn't have been.
If you are too poor to pay your rent and/or council tax you can get some, or most paid. It's not a perfect system, mind. There are caveats that have really caused problems for some of the most vulnerable, like people who need an extra room for a severely disabled child with lots of medical equipment, but don't necessarily qualify for that space according to the gender/age of siblings. Also, it can be difficult to find the right sized property to rent - there are few one bedroom properties for single people to rent.
I've never heard of anyone getting free utilities, but there were some subsidies for the poorest people coming out of covid into a winter of huge price hikes.
We have food banks. They work by shoppers buying an extra item, or two to drop in a donation box on their way out, or volunteers collecting today's date produce from supermarkets. I'm not sure of the criteria for being able to use a food bank. It might be some kind of benefit, but that would exclude those who are working and whose income covers everything except enough food to keep them going, so I don't know. It's not state welfare anyway, it's the community doing it's best to look after others.
We have the NHS, so yes medical services are free for everyone. In Wales we have free prescriptions and some free medications under the Common Ailment Scheme from pharmacies. I'm not sure what the other GB countries do, but I think Scotland is much the same as us and in England you get free prescriptions if you have a chronic illness like diabetes. We certainly don't let people keel over in the street for want of a bit of medicine, or treatment. We're not monsters and it would be a short-sighted way to run a country anyway.
In Wales we can get a bus pass if we're over 60 years old, or disabled, likewise there are concessions on the trains. There are also minibuses to get people to hospital appointments. Luckily when my dad was having dialysis having had his guts held together with mesh and a wish, my mum was still able to drive him to the out of area specialist unit. Otherwise he would have been propped up in the minibus for most of the day as it went round all the towns and villages. It would be pretty psychopathic to leave folk dying of kidney failure on their bathroom floor because they couldn't get to the hospital for dialysis.
We have the Citizen's Advice Bureau and other charitable organisations that help with all sorts of legal and social issues. Government funded Legal Aid is quite restricted, for example you can't get legal representation for family court issues, but clerks will advise you in house. I assume you can get Legal Aid for criminal trials.
If you voluntarily leave your job, you won't be entitled tax credits, or any of the other forms of unemployment benefit. If you lose your job, it's of a barely subsistence living standard. You're expected to look for work full time and it can be time consuming trying to get enough food, etc. to live. There's certainly not enough money for luxuries like heating and hot water in the winter.
If you want to pull up the ladder on the UK's most vulnerable whilst stuffing you maw on one of those ridiculous take aways you like to show off, I'm afraid you're out of luck. We have a halfway socially responsible system because it's both the right and the sensible thing to do.
Yeah, I meant it might be without a timer for good reason.
If monoculture crops can be harvested day and night, perhaps much scurrying occurs on golf courses overnight to maximise perfect, undisturbed playing time during the day.
Perhaps the service extends to a wider area for a purpose, like golfers not being exposed to a fried early morning walker and police cordons on their way to the golf course.
But maybe you're right. Maybe they didn't think to add a timer, or it wasn't worth the price.
jac_the_gripper Blog Comments (2,986)
RE: False accusations...
I think perhaps your kindness and socially skilled management of potentially volatile confrontations may be mistaken for agreeing with others.Personally, I like to watch when you're coaxing the best out of someone, even if I want to slap that person with a wet kipper.