|
I also was dubious about how nuke proof a skyscraper can be, but I gather it is supposed to be rather overbuilt for one, though that may just be because it was intended to house a lot of very big and very heavy equipment, an entire skyscraper of machine floors. I was less thinking about actual nukes and more the general notion of using a telephone exchange as a headquarters in a conflict, if they are generally built like brick shithouses then there would be a good reason for it. E: the long lines building is located at 33 thomas place which is 1 less than 34.
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 00:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 20, 2024 22:11 |
|
|
Hey if anyone wants a UK-redeemable Elden Ring steam key, let me know, I'll take a few quid off the top. I bought it for my American boyfriend, didn't realise it was region-locked and I don't have another forty quid to just buy him a new one and give this one away, or I would. This is why people pirate media, FFS. e: through the magic of a generous friend, this is no longer necessary HopperUK fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Mar 11, 2022 |
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 01:07
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1502189268302766081 She is incredible. Actual hero and still at it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 09:19
|
|
|
Russian asset is sad that Russian propaganda source has gone  https://twitter.com/georgegalloway/status/1502144627440173060
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:04
|
|
|
Describing Galloway as an asset for anyone sounds like a stretch, unless you're using -et as a diminutive.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:22
|
|
|
He's a Hussein man, through and through. Also a catte.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:25
|
|
|
Guavanaut posted:Describing Galloway as an asset for anyone sounds like a stretch, unless you're using -et as a diminutive. He did have a regular slot on RT, so he's not adverse to taking Russia's money in exchange for voicing propaganda.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:26
|
|
|
fuctifino posted:He did have a regular slot on RT, so he's not adverse to taking Russia's money in exchange for voicing propaganda. I've worked for Capita, it doesn't make me an apologist for that miserable company. Stop calling everyone who disagrees with you a Russian asset lest you turn into a lib with as many holes in your brain as Carole Codswallop, a real life version of Charlie Day in that one conspiracy theory scene of It's Always Sunny. Nigel Farage has plenty to hate him for without engaging in Russiagate drivel. Bad actors sometimes just take money from whoever because they are amoral pieces of poo poo rather than because they are taking part in a complex conspiracy to pervert otherwise perfect liberal democracy forkboy84 fucked around with this message at 10:32 on Mar 11, 2022 |
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:29
|
|
|
He's not an asset just a money grubbing self publicist with terminal brainworns. Sexist, and homophobic certainly, opportunist racist and religious bigot when it suits. A political chameleon who right now finds himself on the familiar territory of "well America also does this heinous poo poo so maybe its not so bad when countries outside their sphere of influence do the same." Edit : Galloway I mean, though also describes Farage fairly well. keep punching joe fucked around with this message at 10:38 on Mar 11, 2022 |
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:35
|
|
|
forkboy84 posted:Bad actors sometimes just take money from whoever because they are amoral pieces of poo poo rather than because they are taking part in a complex conspiracy to pervert otherwise perfect liberal democracy The last-but-one literary review in Private Eye reviewed that recent book someone published about Farage (the one that said 'he panders to racists and does racist things but, y'know, I just don't think he's a racist!') and what you've said is pretty much the conclusion the reviewer arrived at. Farage (and grifters like him) might be useful to propaganda regimes like Russia but it's not really correct to call them assets. They'll take their money (see: grifters) but their only reliably loyalty is to themselves. Personally and as an aside, I think that's part of what makes them so infuriated to the centrists—people like Farage are the embodiment of the fact that The Establishment really only cares about itself, and it's designed that way, but the centre still believes that people in power can be moderated through a complex system of
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:42
|
|
|
keep punching joe posted:He's not an asset just a money grubbing self publicist with terminal brainworns. Galloway is an asset because he's a money-grubbing brainwormed self-publicist and such people are easily guided. Even after working for RT, he may not realise he's an asset.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:44
|
|
|
I called him a Russian asset because he's loudly and publicly voicing anger over a blatant Russian disinformation source being taken down, and I'm pretty certain that he doesn't do anything unless there's self interest or money involved. But yeah, I'll use a better term in future.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:46
|
|
|
Jedit posted:Galloway is an asset because he's a money-grubbing brainwormed self-publicist and such people are easily guided. Even after working for RT, he may not realise he's an asset. I bet if Sky News or whoever gave him cash to shill for Nato he'd be there in a second though. And would salute George W for his courage and indefatigability.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:46
|
|
|
Jeherrin posted:The last-but-one literary review in Private Eye reviewed that recent book someone published about Farage (the one that said 'he panders to racists and does racist things but, y'know, I just don't think he's a racist!') and what you've said is pretty much the conclusion the reviewer arrived at. Farage (and grifters like him) might be useful to propaganda regimes like Russia but it's not really correct to call them assets. They'll take their money (see: grifters) but their only reliably loyalty is to themselves. "Asset" in this context says nothing at all about the motivation of the person doing the thing, just that they do the thing that the intelligence agency wants them to do. Aldrich Ames, to pick a name at random, didn't give two shits about the USSR, he just liked picking up literal suitcases full of cash from them.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:48
|
|
|
keep punching joe posted:I bet if Sky News or whoever gave him cash to shill for Nato he'd be there in a second though. And would salute George W for his courage and indefatigability.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:48
|
|
|
Dunno if it was posted here last night but I'm cackling at this Brit who went to Ukraine assuming it'd be just like when he was merking paups in Iraq and Afghanistan https://twitter.com/j_bigboote/status/1502023889664233472
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:48
|
|
|
Tesseraction posted:Dunno if it was posted here last night but I'm cackling at this Brit who went to Ukraine assuming it'd be just like when he was merking paups in Iraq and Afghanistan https://twitter.com/j_bigboote/status/1502023889664233472 Not sure this is a lol tbh, unless I missed the part where he talked about how much he wants to kill paups
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:51
|
|
|
Was amused to see that a group of 'Proud Boys' have flown to Poland with the intent of joining the Russian offensive. Have any of our homegrown racist militias ventured out to the warzone (on either side)? I expect the last thing the UA need is a squad of 50-something Bazzes deploying to defend their statues (of Nazis).
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 10:54
|
|
|
From the sounds of it, the Proud Boys talked a big game about it and then just didn't, wasting a bunch of border security time watching out for them. Which sounds about par for the course for all sides involved.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 11:03
|
|
|
Who do I report electricity problems to? Woke up this morning with everything buzzing and the meter is flashing a series of "Low"/gibberish warning messages.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 11:18
|
|
|
sassassin posted:Who do I report electricity problems to? Woke up this morning with everything buzzing and the meter is flashing a series of "Low"/gibberish warning messages. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 11:21
|
|
|
Convex posted:Not sure this is a lol tbh, unless I missed the part where he talked about how much he wants to kill paups Eh, I admit I found "nobody in this generation has faced off against the firepower of a conventional army, says former active member of a conventional army" rather amusing. Maybe he assumed everyone he was shooting at in Iraq was in their 60s.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 11:57
|
|
|
I think the fault was that someone was fixing a fault. 5 minute power cut and now everything's working normally. Nothing drives me crazier the persistent noises I can't get rid of (like mice in the attic), and having to sort out house problems that only crop up every few years. The meter was only replaced two years ago, and I only just fixed the door that blew off in the storms. I want to be one of those rich weirdos that lives in a hotel and calls the front desk for every issue. 3 weeks until I have to renew my electricity contract RIP
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 11:59
|
|
|
Convex posted:Not sure this is a lol tbh, unless I missed the part where he talked about how much he wants to kill paups Reveilled posted:Eh, I admit I found "nobody in this generation has faced off against the firepower of a conventional army, says former active member of a conventional army" rather amusing. Maybe he assumed everyone he was shooting at in Iraq was in their 60s. Also, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan arriving in Ukraine and going "wait, they have planes?" and then immediately fleeing is indicative of a mindset that it was going to go like before, when it was them who had the air superiority and overwhelming force.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 12:05
|
|
|
Tesseraction posted:Also, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan arriving in Ukraine and going "wait, they have planes?" and then immediately fleeing is indicative of a mindset that it was going to go like before, when it was them who had the air superiority and overwhelming force. It's no-fly discourse writ small.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 12:12
|
|
|
Reveilled posted:Eh, I admit I found "nobody in this generation has faced off against the firepower of a conventional army, says former active member of a conventional army" rather amusing. Maybe he assumed everyone he was shooting at in Iraq was in their 60s. Brown people don't count, you see.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 12:42
|
|
|
keep punching joe posted:I bet if Sky News or whoever gave him cash to shill for Nato he'd be there in a second though. In spy story jargon, I believe that is the distinction between _asset_ and _agent_. Agents are expected to be loyal; a double cross is a plot twist. assets are just people doing a job for money. You wouldn’t expect them to refuse to do jobs for other people any more than you would expect the postman not to deliver to that one neighbour you hate. Dunno what the spy jargon is for someone who does stuff without being paid to do so; it may be a concept they are unfamiliar with.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 12:48
|
|
|
Non-war (Ukraine or Labour) chat: SIM card trip report: Got me a Smarty sim card a few days ago, £4 for12GB + unlimited texts and calls. (Goes up to £8 after 3 months). Verdict: great. Even though it uses the Three network, when my Three homehub was doing an impression of a very slow snail yesterday, I was able to tether from the Smarty on my new smart phone (£99 moto e30) to my laptop and on the laptop got download speeds of 50+ Mbps. No contract, can change your package every month if necessary. I'm going to give it a good try for a month including a long weekend away before steeling myself to confront customer services and the potentially ensuing chaos by cancelling my three mifi (NOT the homehub!) and save myself £10.50pm.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 12:55
|
|
|
radmonger posted:In spy story jargon, I believe that is the distinction between _asset_ and _agent_. Agents are expected to be loyal; a double cross is a plot twist. assets are just people doing a job for money. You wouldn’t expect them to refuse to do jobs for other people any more than you would expect the postman not to deliver to that one neighbour you hate. It also gets complicated because the US lingo is slightly different - an "agent" is an actual member of the agency ("officer" in UK parlance), and "asset" is literally anyone or anything that the agent uses to get information, from a multi-billion dollar surveillance satellite to the window cleaner at the Russian embassy. In the UK an "agent" is a paid source of information or provider of influence from outside the agency, while an "asset" (normally called a "source") is unpaid, or at least not being paid by the agency (e.g. embassy staff who happen to notice a shitload of tanks heading south when they're driving in, or a politician who can't stop gossiping with her chums who all happen to be on the payroll).
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 13:15
|
|
|
also don't know what the spy jargon is but I always thought "[state] asset" meant "person who is useful to [state] interests", whether that be because they directly take money to advance your agenda or because they'll pretty much do it anyway if you give them a nudge. Not seeing the distinction between "is paid by Russia to advance Russia's agenda" & "Russian asset" at all
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 13:16
|
|
|
In Galloway's case it's the 'useful' bit. He's a useful idiot without the first part.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 13:21
|
|
|
Useful in the sense that chaos benefits them. Alignment wise, Galloway is chaotic stupid.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 13:26
|
|
|
I'm pretty sure that Galloway has taken bribes directly from Saddam Hussein / Baath Party. I doubt Farage's cash comes direct from the Kremlin though, probably washed through multiple sources.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 13:44
|
|
|
I still know basically nothing about Galloway other than that I hate his stupid hat, and it annoys me that he never stops wearing it to the extent that I immediately turn over whenever he appears and as such have managed to completely avoid hearing anything he has to say.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 13:50
|
|
|
keep punching joe posted:I'm pretty sure that Galloway has taken bribes directly from Saddam Hussein / Baath Party. I doubt Farage's cash comes direct from the Kremlin though, probably washed through multiple sources. Galloway successfully sued the Telegraph for claiming that Iraqi intelligence had paid him.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 13:53
|
|
|
Slow clap for Peter Oborne https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/russia-ukraine-war-jeremy-corbyn-right-putin-oligarchs He's been getting it for a while though, to be fair. I've taken to writing to various blue checkmark types and influential centrists. I have some vague hope of convincing one or two of them that Russian money is the thread that runs through the last 10 years of British politics. I'm genuinely terrified that this is the 1930's and if we can't convince centrists that Hitler is maybe bad actually and we should look at what he has been doing here we could seriously end up on the wrong side of this one.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 13:55
|
|
|
Who is hitler in this scenario? Because as keeps coming up, this is exactly the poo poo the US and UK have done of their own volition over the last 20 years, but you're not allowed to do it to good white christian europeans. Convincing people that it is all because of the evil russian influence in our pure and unsullied enlightened liberal society isn't going to be an improvement. OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 14:12 on Mar 11, 2022 |
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 14:10
|
|
|
jiggerypokery posted:Slow clap for Peter Oborne https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/russia-ukraine-war-jeremy-corbyn-right-putin-oligarchs He's been getting it for a while though, to be fair. This seems like an inadvisable take when we're seeing foreign policy realign in real time to be nicer to the Saudis about the genocide we're helping them with in Yemen. Please don't just assume that British corruption exclusively revolves around the enemy du jour - the whole thing about the state being up for sale is that anyone can buy, and politicians will behave with the same parasitic self-interest regardless of whether they're getting customers. Much as Ukraine is being used to limit and manage our empathy for victims of imperialist wars in general, Russian dark money is being used to limit and manage our disgust for British kleptocracy in general.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 14:12
|
|
|
jiggerypokery posted:I'm genuinely terrified that this is the 1930's and if we can't convince centrists that Hitler is maybe bad actually and we should look at what he has been doing here we could seriously end up on the wrong side of this one. If you want a wartime analogy, I'd say it's more the equivalent to countries being dragged into the first world war by alliances - Britain is effectively being forced to stand against Russia in term of sanctions (reluctantly) because of how enmeshed we are is in global finance, not because of the government actually caring about Ukraine or being upset by what Putin's doing. Johnson can waffle on about britain forging its own path, but if firms here want to do business globally then ignoring the extent of sanctions etc put in place by the US and Europe and doing the kind of half-arsed ones we announced initially are a good way to get a whole lot of negative attention and risk losing banking licences in other countries I suspect. At a point when things are moving less quickly, I would be unsurprised if European banking regulators from countries who are a lot more nervous about Russian aggression than we are might start to ask very pointed questions about precisely what British banks and investment firms etc allow when it comes to Russian money and start shining some lights in our direction. imo the very obvious slow-walking of initial sanctions in the UK and attempts to let wealthy Russian friends of the government liquidate assets ahead of sanctions won't have escaped notice in European governments and financial authorities.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 14:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 20, 2024 22:11 |
|
|
As was frequently pointed out since pre-Brexit vote and subsequently, turning the UK into an isolated little island with few trading partners makes it exponentially more reliant on trade partners, which leads to a lot of kowtowing to autocrats. Plus the natural Tory admiration for autocratic regimes, and the opportunities for mutual profiteering.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2022 14:23
|
|
