It’s Your Party, you can cry if…

by liberal japonicus Chaplin once said “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.” So watching UK politics is a bit like that for me. Which is an introduction to this New Statesman podcast about the Your Party conference. Here it is I do want to be careful, we’ve seen … Read more

Open Thread

There hasn’t been one of these for a while, at least in the sense that no topic is off-topic. I’ll start… FIRST SNOW! We got about five inches overnight. We were within ten days of the record for latest first measurable snow of the season. GftNC ordered a buckwheat hull pillow, but I don’t recall … Read more

uncomfortability?

by liberal japonicus Tossing this interview with Zack Polanski, leader of the Greens, on the rest of politics, there’s lots of things to talk about, but for me, I was spent most of the time wondering about the word ‘uncomfortability’. (at 11:11) It is apparently a neologism that is being used more and more.

Am I missing something?

by liberal japonicus Rachel Reeves, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, just delivered her budget to parliament and the leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch gave her reply and I’ve cued it up (I think) below. If you don’t want to wade thru the whole thing, at least check out from 1:57. Some other background, … Read more

An openish thread featuring the comedy stylings of Steve Witkoff

by liberal japonicus An open thread was requested to talk about the Witkoff deal. Some prescient comment from March on Witkoff, the man called ‘the dumbest of Trump’s advisors’ by one of Woodward’s background sources. Witkoff is also good at giving away negotiating positions, when he chooses to do so. This includes a certainty that … Read more

Shabana burns the cakes

by liberal japonicus Alfred the Great was surprised by ‘the Great Heathen Army’ (a great name for a punk band) led by Viking King Guthrum and escaped disguised as a peasant. While in disguise, he was able to hide in a cowherd’s hut and the cowherd’s wife asked him to watch some oatcakes on a … Read more

Pop!

No weasel, but maybe a bubble. Nvidia posts earnings tomorrow. https://investor.nvidia.com/events-and-presentations/events-and-presentations/default.aspxPeter Thiel’s hedge fund, Thiel Marco, revealed in its regulatory filing late last week that they had sold off all of their Nvidia holdings during the third quarter. As did SoftBank. The “Big Short” guy shorted Nvidia to the tune of $186M in the third … Read more

Stewart Lee

by liberal japonicus I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been spending a lot of time watching comedians on YouTube, and beyond the laughs, I’m always interested in how jokes and routines are constructed. So it was a bit of luck to find the work of Stewart Lee, a British standup comedian. If you don’t like it, … Read more