comment by Hector (U3606)
posted 1 minute ago
Some of the NAMES he's given those kids...Tau Techno Mechanicus Musk, X Æ A-Xii and Exa Dark Sideræl ffs!

What's wrong with John, Gary, Sally or Karen...
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I feel if he was going to go down that route it would lean towards Adolf, Heinrich, Hermann or Joseph kind of guy.

comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 42 minutes ago
comment by FieldsofAnfieldRd (U18971)
posted 31 minutes ago
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 0 seconds ago
comment by Onana what's my name? (U14210)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 57 minutes ago
comment by Onana what's my name? (U14210)
posted 10 minutes ago
But trump selling out Ukraine is a disgrace but expected
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I think Ukraine was sold out for the start dude and I doubt that Zelensky has a problem with it
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No chance Zelensky is happy to lose his country to Russia
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He’s not going to lose the entire country bro.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
What I’m saying is that the outcome was likely decided a long time ago whereby all major parties profit by various means.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
How are Zelensky or the Ukrainian people profiting?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Who said anything about the Ukrainian people? That’s the whole bloody point.

Zelensky will be getting paaaaaaaid.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
OK then

comment by Robbing Hoody - I call everything I don’t like woke (U6374)
posted 35 minutes ago
Owe you a bit of an apology Rossi, my support (if you could call it that) of Musk a couple of months ago is very firmly in the bin.

Did you see his Tweet about closing tax loopholes? Someone retweeted him detailing who Tesla are using the loopholes every year since 2020
----------------------------------------------------------------------

comment by FieldsofAnfieldRd (U18971)
posted less than a minute ago
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 42 minutes ago
comment by FieldsofAnfieldRd (U18971)
posted 31 minutes ago
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 0 seconds ago
comment by Onana what's my name? (U14210)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 57 minutes ago
comment by Onana what's my name? (U14210)
posted 10 minutes ago
But trump selling out Ukraine is a disgrace but expected
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I think Ukraine was sold out for the start dude and I doubt that Zelensky has a problem with it
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No chance Zelensky is happy to lose his country to Russia
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He’s not going to lose the entire country bro.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
What I’m saying is that the outcome was likely decided a long time ago whereby all major parties profit by various means.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
How are Zelensky or the Ukrainian people profiting?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Who said anything about the Ukrainian people? That’s the whole bloody point.

Zelensky will be getting paaaaaaaid.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
OK then
----------------------------------------------------------------------
My goodness. He's not joking.

Tories are Tories because they're theeck.

comment by CrouchEndGooner (U13531)
posted 29 minutes ago
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 1 hour ago
comment by CrouchEndGooner (U13531)
posted 32 minutes ago
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 10 minutes ago
Follow the money gents
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Put down the lemsip
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I think you’re forgetting what world you’re living in mate.

If I said to you that countries through monetary donations and contracts influence other countries on a regular basis, you’d say ‘well yeah of course, they’ve been doing that for years’.

Well why would you think wars are any different?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You're being too vague man

Just say BlackRock and let's move on
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hahaha

Fair

comment by RRRU-ben a-moo-REENG (U17054)
posted 41 minutes ago
comment by Irishred (U2539)
posted 10 minutes ago
Who knew eh? Hoody the musk fanboy

Adders you know the drill. Account deletion etc
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If Irish was made Admin for a single day, the site would be down to a single figure membership
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I’d sort the chancers on this site out

comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 3 hours, 3 minutes ago
Have any of you lot spent much time looking into what things like USAID actually is and why Elon Musk and Trump are looking into it?

Or are you only interested in highlighting mistakes that they have made and trying to mock them?

I have a feeling that if you knew what it was really all about and certainly if it were being done by someone that you actually supported, rather than disliked, you’d be all up for it. The clue is what it actually stands for and it hasn’t got much to do with aid. Smith-Mundt Act and our poster boy old mate Obama back in 2012.

Enjoy reading about it, it’s quite interesting.



Misdirection
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I mentioned the issue of the US's tied aid on here some time ago, but I don't remember anyone entering the discussion.

I'm not clued up on the Smith-Mundt Act, perhaps you could fill us in on it. Fwiw, though, I worked in the aid sector for several years around the turn of the century.

Already back then the U.S. was notorious for its tied aid practices.

Tied aid is aid provided to countries on the condition that it is used to procure goods and services from the donor country. This, of course, is a convenient and rather covert way of pumping government funds back into your own economy.

A particularly sinister American use of its foreign aid was to offload its agricultural surpluses. Extensive agriculture is (or was, I'm not fully up to speed on this) very highly subsidized in the US, due to its of crucial geostrategic importance. Using food aid to offload surpluses is a useful mechanism both for domestic and international price control.

It explained fairly straightforwardly in the following lines from a UN report of 2006:

"A 2005 study by the industrialized countries’ Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) called for donating cash rather than commodities (wheat, maize, cooking oil), which is now a common practice. For example, in the US, the largest supplier of food aid, national law requires that commodities be produced in the US and shipped via US-owned ships or aircraft, a practice called “tied aid” (see Africa Recovery, January 2004).

Tied food aid, the OECD argued, increases costs by as much as 50 per cent over locally purchased goods, reduces market incentives to expand production in the affected area, slows arrival times and runs the risk of destroying rural economies by flooding recipient countries with free food. Almost all US food aid is provided as commodities, as was much of the more than 5 mn tonnes of food distributed by WFP in 2004.

The issue has even become a subject of concern at the World Trade Organization (WTO), where European countries in particular have called US tied food aid a disguised agricultural-trade subsidy. They have also called for food aid to be provided as cash and for donated commodities to become subject to WTO “disciplines,” or global trade regulations."

From "Fixing the humanitarian aid system"
https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/january-2006/fixing-humanitarian-aid-system


Some here might also remember GW Bush launching a massive AIDS relief program, PEPFAR. It was launched to great fanfare back in the early 2000s. What wasn't as loudly publicised was that access to the program was made contingent on recipient countries also accepting us food aid (read US agricultural surpluses), with the aims explained above.

So, yeah, the aid issue is definitely not without its problems, and for decades now there have been calls for the entire aid system to be reviewed, even overhauled.

However, what is not in the least clear to me is that the best or only way to go about it is to put thousands of people out of a job overnight, and leave thousands of projects, with millions upon millions of beneficiaries worldwide, in imminent danger.

Misdirection - very likely - but whose?

comment by Darren The King Fletcher (U10026)
posted 2 hours, 44 minutes ago
comment by Tamwolf (U17286)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by CrouchEndGooner (U13531)
posted 3 minutes ago
What on earth does that mean
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I think Sat Nav's account has been hacked by Oscar.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The ultimate insult.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Crushing.

comment by Michael Scofield (U11781)
posted 15 hours, 11 minutes ago
NASA says there is a 3.1% chance an asteroid will hit Earth in 2032, making it the highest risk of an asteroid strike ever assessed by the agency.

Hopefully it falls on Bibi
----------------------------------------------------------------------
DOGE will start firing NASA employees until they agree to reduce the risk to zero.

comment by Robbing Hoody - I call everything I don’t like woke (U6374)
posted 36 minutes ago
comment by Hector (U3606)
posted 1 minute ago
Some of the NAMES he's given those kids...Tau Techno Mechanicus Musk, X Æ A-Xii and Exa Dark Sideræl ffs!

What's wrong with John, Gary, Sally or Karen...
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I feel if he was going to go down that route it would lean towards Adolf, Heinrich, Hermann or Joseph kind of guy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TBF, like some of us, he had enough testosterone to produce a son.

Ngl, it’s quite funny having a guy who is thoroughly insecure and about 5ft 6 in height talk about testosterone but I’m not going to let your obsession with me to again derail what has been a perfectly fine thread today, so will let others decide.

comment by PPPR (U23205)
posted 5 minutes ago
comment by Robbing Hoody - I call everything I don’t like woke (U6374)
posted 36 minutes ago
comment by Hector (U3606)
posted 1 minute ago
Some of the NAMES he's given those kids...Tau Techno Mechanicus Musk, X Æ A-Xii and Exa Dark Sideræl ffs!

What's wrong with John, Gary, Sally or Karen...
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I feel if he was going to go down that route it would lean towards Adolf, Heinrich, Hermann or Joseph kind of guy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TBF, like some of us, he had enough testosterone to produce a son.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Admin, you can ban this guy from the thread.

'I can't sell our state': Zelensky asked about US earth minerals proposal

published at 10:59
10:59

‘Zelensky turns now to a question about a proposal from Trump which would allow the US to take a percentage of Ukraine's rare earth minerals, including lithium and titanium.

He says he rejected it because the first draft said Ukraine would have to grant the US 50% ownership of its materials, and made no mention of the security guarantees Zelensky sought.’

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c62e2158mkpt

Facking hell. Europe needs to be ready to act alone, like yesterday.

Watching live on Sky News now. I’ve never seen Zelensky like this. He looks like he’s suffering from shellshock.

For the past few months I’ve been having a good laugh at Trump and considered him box office, but this sh!t is getting too close to home now.

If we choose a side, I very much hope it’s Europe.

comment by Robbing Hoody - I call everything I don’t like woke (U6374)
posted 8 minutes ago
For the past few months I’ve been having a good laugh at Trump and considered him box office, but this sh!t is getting too close to home now.

If we choose a side, I very much hope it’s Europe.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's ironic that Trump's gone and done precisely what the US would never have allowed Europe to do: join forces with Russia.

comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 38 minutes ago
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 3 hours, 3 minutes ago
Have any of you lot spent much time looking into what things like USAID actually is and why Elon Musk and Trump are looking into it?

Or are you only interested in highlighting mistakes that they have made and trying to mock them?

I have a feeling that if you knew what it was really all about and certainly if it were being done by someone that you actually supported, rather than disliked, you’d be all up for it. The clue is what it actually stands for and it hasn’t got much to do with aid. Smith-Mundt Act and our poster boy old mate Obama back in 2012.

Enjoy reading about it, it’s quite interesting.



Misdirection
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I mentioned the issue of the US's tied aid on here some time ago, but I don't remember anyone entering the discussion.

I'm not clued up on the Smith-Mundt Act, perhaps you could fill us in on it. Fwiw, though, I worked in the aid sector for several years around the turn of the century.

Already back then the U.S. was notorious for its tied aid practices.

Tied aid is aid provided to countries on the condition that it is used to procure goods and services from the donor country. This, of course, is a convenient and rather covert way of pumping government funds back into your own economy.

A particularly sinister American use of its foreign aid was to offload its agricultural surpluses. Extensive agriculture is (or was, I'm not fully up to speed on this) very highly subsidized in the US, due to its of crucial geostrategic importance. Using food aid to offload surpluses is a useful mechanism both for domestic and international price control.

It explained fairly straightforwardly in the following lines from a UN report of 2006:

"A 2005 study by the industrialized countries’ Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) called for donating cash rather than commodities (wheat, maize, cooking oil), which is now a common practice. For example, in the US, the largest supplier of food aid, national law requires that commodities be produced in the US and shipped via US-owned ships or aircraft, a practice called “tied aid” (see Africa Recovery, January 2004).

Tied food aid, the OECD argued, increases costs by as much as 50 per cent over locally purchased goods, reduces market incentives to expand production in the affected area, slows arrival times and runs the risk of destroying rural economies by flooding recipient countries with free food. Almost all US food aid is provided as commodities, as was much of the more than 5 mn tonnes of food distributed by WFP in 2004.

The issue has even become a subject of concern at the World Trade Organization (WTO), where European countries in particular have called US tied food aid a disguised agricultural-trade subsidy. They have also called for food aid to be provided as cash and for donated commodities to become subject to WTO “disciplines,” or global trade regulations."

From "Fixing the humanitarian aid system"
https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/january-2006/fixing-humanitarian-aid-system


Some here might also remember GW Bush launching a massive AIDS relief program, PEPFAR. It was launched to great fanfare back in the early 2000s. What wasn't as loudly publicised was that access to the program was made contingent on recipient countries also accepting us food aid (read US agricultural surpluses), with the aims explained above.

So, yeah, the aid issue is definitely not without its problems, and for decades now there have been calls for the entire aid system to be reviewed, even overhauled.

However, what is not in the least clear to me is that the best or only way to go about it is to put thousands of people out of a job overnight, and leave thousands of projects, with millions upon millions of beneficiaries worldwide, in imminent danger.

Misdirection - very likely - but whose?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi IOAG

I’m glad somebody picked up on this. I’ll come back to you shortly. I think it’s very interesting.

comment by Robbing Hoody - I call everything I don’t like woke (U6374)
posted 26 minutes ago
Ngl, it’s quite funny having a guy who is thoroughly insecure and about 5ft 6 in height talk about testosterone but I’m not going to let your obsession with me to again derail what has been a perfectly fine thread today, so will let others decide.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Musk only started having daughters when he started losing the plot.

Afraid of that discussion?

The guy has a huge family also so is by your own definition a success.

comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 18 seconds ago
comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 38 minutes ago
comment by Sat Nav (U18243)
posted 3 hours, 3 minutes ago
Have any of you lot spent much time looking into what things like USAID actually is and why Elon Musk and Trump are looking into it?

Or are you only interested in highlighting mistakes that they have made and trying to mock them?

I have a feeling that if you knew what it was really all about and certainly if it were being done by someone that you actually supported, rather than disliked, you’d be all up for it. The clue is what it actually stands for and it hasn’t got much to do with aid. Smith-Mundt Act and our poster boy old mate Obama back in 2012.

Enjoy reading about it, it’s quite interesting.



Misdirection
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I mentioned the issue of the US's tied aid on here some time ago, but I don't remember anyone entering the discussion.

I'm not clued up on the Smith-Mundt Act, perhaps you could fill us in on it. Fwiw, though, I worked in the aid sector for several years around the turn of the century.

Already back then the U.S. was notorious for its tied aid practices.

Tied aid is aid provided to countries on the condition that it is used to procure goods and services from the donor country. This, of course, is a convenient and rather covert way of pumping government funds back into your own economy.

A particularly sinister American use of its foreign aid was to offload its agricultural surpluses. Extensive agriculture is (or was, I'm not fully up to speed on this) very highly subsidized in the US, due to its of crucial geostrategic importance. Using food aid to offload surpluses is a useful mechanism both for domestic and international price control.

It explained fairly straightforwardly in the following lines from a UN report of 2006:

"A 2005 study by the industrialized countries’ Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) called for donating cash rather than commodities (wheat, maize, cooking oil), which is now a common practice. For example, in the US, the largest supplier of food aid, national law requires that commodities be produced in the US and shipped via US-owned ships or aircraft, a practice called “tied aid” (see Africa Recovery, January 2004).

Tied food aid, the OECD argued, increases costs by as much as 50 per cent over locally purchased goods, reduces market incentives to expand production in the affected area, slows arrival times and runs the risk of destroying rural economies by flooding recipient countries with free food. Almost all US food aid is provided as commodities, as was much of the more than 5 mn tonnes of food distributed by WFP in 2004.

The issue has even become a subject of concern at the World Trade Organization (WTO), where European countries in particular have called US tied food aid a disguised agricultural-trade subsidy. They have also called for food aid to be provided as cash and for donated commodities to become subject to WTO “disciplines,” or global trade regulations."

From "Fixing the humanitarian aid system"
https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/january-2006/fixing-humanitarian-aid-system


Some here might also remember GW Bush launching a massive AIDS relief program, PEPFAR. It was launched to great fanfare back in the early 2000s. What wasn't as loudly publicised was that access to the program was made contingent on recipient countries also accepting us food aid (read US agricultural surpluses), with the aims explained above.

So, yeah, the aid issue is definitely not without its problems, and for decades now there have been calls for the entire aid system to be reviewed, even overhauled.

However, what is not in the least clear to me is that the best or only way to go about it is to put thousands of people out of a job overnight, and leave thousands of projects, with millions upon millions of beneficiaries worldwide, in imminent danger.

Misdirection - very likely - but whose?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi IOAG

I’m glad somebody picked up on this. I’ll come back to you shortly. I think it’s very interesting.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Essentially the Smith-Mundt act was about overseas propaganda after WW2 from 1948 (when the CIA was created I think). It was a means of funnelling US money to overseas broadcasters to print 'hit job' articles on 'unfriendly' politicians, judges etc. Basically to cause regime changes; be it large or small.

Now what was interesting is that this was specifically prohibited domestically. I.e. the US govt (the state department and things like USAID and similar organisations were not allowed to do or allow this propaganda domestically by making tied-donations.

Then come 2011 or 2012 - this was updated and effectively domestic versions of this was now allowed. They felt they had to do this due the rise of the internet and social media. This is now allowing 'overseas' influence on domestic media and so on as well as on foreign countries.

Now none of this is surprising to anyone that takes a moment to think about psych-ops, propaganda, election rigging from the CIA, they've been doing that for decades. But what's mad about the US is that the publicly list thousands and thousand of donation items and with objectives and successes clearly listed. Some of the objectives and success are hilarious, like literally saying 'YAY we got rid of that judge in X country'.

This has been happening in Ukraine for a decade now apparently.

And THIS is why someone like Musk and Trump are talking about it.

If true, it's actually quite interesting stuff to be brought out in the public domain and highlighted so much.

Like I said earlier, if this were done by someone that lots on here supported like a Bernie Sanders type, then they'd be really happy to hear. But because the messengers are Musk & Trump, a lot of people don't want to hear.

It's a bit of a rabbit hole, but an interesting one IMO.

comment by Robbing Hoody - I call everything I don’t like woke (U6374)
posted 32 minutes ago
For the past few months I’ve been having a good laugh at Trump and considered him box office, but this sh!t is getting too close to home now.

If we choose a side, I very much hope it’s Europe.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Trump and Musk are over 6ft

Corbyn and Starmer 5ft8

Sunak 3ft 8ins

Sunak has daughters.

The others have sons.