POLITICS CORNER

[Stanley]

I posted but I heard the news so early I thought it best to wait and see......

See THIS analysis by Jeremy Bowen, possible the most impartial opinion you will find.
8 hours ago
Donald Trump's plan for the US to "take over" and "own" Gaza, resettling its population in the process, is not going to happen. It requires the co-operation of Arab states that have rejected it. They include Jordan and Egypt - countries that Trump wants to take in Gaza's Palestinians - and Saudi Arabia, which might be expected to foot the bill. Western allies of the US and Israel are also against the idea. Some - perhaps many - Palestinians in Gaza might be tempted to get out if they had the chance. But even if a million left, as many as 1.2m others would still be there. Presumably the United States - the new owners of Trump's "Riviera of the Middle East" - would have to use force to remove them. After America's catastrophic intervention in Iraq in 2003, that would be deeply unpopular in the US.
There is more and it is worth reading. The bottom line is that Trump is an attention-seeking fantasist. I suspected as much but needed some trustworthy comment.

[Tizer]

I'm waiting and wondering what response there will be from Iran and Russia. They've been quiet on Trump's Grand Plan so far.

I notice that Musk has been given the highest level of US security clearance. He can see any documents and enter any of the government's buildings. I see a clash coming between Musk and the lady known as the Ice Maiden, Susie Wyles. She's the one who put her foot down and said No to Musk, you can't have an office in the White House (although he's managed to get an office in another building in the White House garden, so I now have a picture in my mind of Musk as a gnome in the garden! )

[PanBiker]

Why should Saudi Arabia pay for rebuilding? It was mainly US ordnance that levelled it with a bit of help from our US ordnance!

Let's get real, the man is deranged but as the most powerful man on the planet, if he wanted to be truly altruistic he could invite all the Palestinians over to the US. It's big enough, they could host them In Texas or Arizona, Utah etc, plenty of room and deserts that are similar to Gaza. Temporary of course until The USA have cleared and rebuilt Gaza like it was before the US paid for it's destruction. Create it as an independent State of Palestine. They could then repatriate all the original surviving inhabitants.

It would of course be a lot easier to move all the Israeli population to the US and let the Palestinians back into the land that was stolen from them, it's just next door. It has the added benefit of ready made accommodation and infrastructure and would be a lot quicker to implement. Netanyahu thinks the sun shines out of Trumps behind so why not buddy up properly. Same deal, give them a bit of Texas or whatever!

[Tizer]

Trump is in real estate, not politics. Just think of all those Trump Towers hotels he could build along the Gaza coast. The real estate fixation also accounts for his approaches to Greenland, Panama and even Mexico and Canada. I wonder what all the Sioux, Apache, Cheyenne etc descendants think about land grabbing immigrants?

[PanBiker]

It would be a lot cheaper to build multiple Trump towers in Texas, and no UXB's to deal with.

[Tizer]

`Trump to sanction ICC, BBC understands' BBC Live
Trump is set to sign an executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court (ICC) later today for targeting the US and allies, such as Israel, the BBC understands. The order will see both financial and visa related sanctions applied to individuals assisting the ICC with its investigations into US citizens or allies, as well as their families. The move comes in response to the ICC's decision to issue arrest warrants against both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other Israeli and Hamas officials last year. Senate Democrats last week blocked a bill which sought to sanction the ICC, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calling the bill "poorly drafted" and "deeply problematic".

[Stanley]

HERE'S the BBC report on the issuing of the order.
Updated 2 hours ago
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court, accusing it of "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel". The measure places financial and visa restrictions on individuals and their families who assist in ICC investigations of American citizens or allies. Trump signed the measure as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting Washington.
I heard an interesting discussion on R4 yesterday, Jeremy Bowen was one of the participants. They all seemed to know what they were talking about and at one point agreed that there was always the chance that this flurry of disruptive activity on tariffs, Gaza and other matters might be just that and intended to act as 'running interference' for his negotiating kit. So far he has achieved his main goal, to be the centre of attention world wide.
I suppose this is possible.... On the other hand perhaps he is exactly what he appears to be, a spoiled brat who has been let loose in the sweet shop who will over indulge and make himself (and his followers) sick.

[Tizer]

`Elon Musk barred from accessing US Treasury payments data: Judge issues temporary order restricting access by ‘Doge’ to multi-trillion-dollar system' FT
Elon Musk’s crusade to slash US government spending suffered setbacks on Thursday after a federal judge barred the Treasury department from handing data from its payments system to outsiders and one of the billionaire’s staffers was forced to resign over racist social media posts.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly put the temporary order in place after Musk boasted that his team at the “Department of Government Efficiency” (Doge) was “rapidly shutting down” Treasury remittances. They apparently gained access to the system that disburses trillions of dollars, including social security payments and Medicare, each year.
Hours after the judge’s decision, 25-year-old coder Marko Elez, who was working for Doge at the Treasury, abruptly resigned after apparently racist comments from a dormant social media account were unearthed. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the social media posts.
Elez was one of a handful of young engineers recruited by Musk’s Doge and installed in various government agencies. When asked about their roles this week, President Donald Trump called the coders “very smart” and defended their work.

[Stanley]

Won't he be making himself popular among the permanent staff at the Treasury.....

[Tripps]

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has set out plans to crackdown on crime as she said

"the government would attempt to halve knife offences in a decade"

Think about it - a self set 'target' attempt - halve - decade.

Beyond comment. . . .






.

[PanBiker]

The problem is, you don't need a "Zombie Knife" to do serious or fatal damage to someone. Any number of normal kitchen knives would do the job. Wide selections available in virtually every kitchen. You can ban the sale of the statement type knives readily available on the internet and increase the fines for those retailers not adhering to the rules. It's a rock and a hard place situation really which is why the problem has not been solved in the past.

Education is the key and punitive fines / custody for possession or carrying. It's a reflection on society that lots of young folk think they have to arm themselves for self defence. It used to be a punch up in the school yard at worst to settle differences. Different ball park now unfortunately.

[Stanley]

Quite right Ian. I look at my knife rack on the wall and any of those could cause serious damage..... They are all sharp as razors.
The problem about politics is that politicians think that because talking got them into Parliament it can affect the real world as well when in fact the only way is by actions.

See THIS and then ask yourself if it really matters?
Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband has refused to say whether he is personally in favour of the expansion of Heathrow airport. Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the Labour government would support the airport plans for a third runway last month, in pursuit of her economic growth agenda. As Labour leader in 2010, Miliband reversed his party's support for Heathrow expansion over concerns about the environmental impact of it. Pushed on whether he has changed his mind, Miliband said: "I am part of the government and I abide by collective responsibility."
Another example of regarding talk as important in politics.

[Tizer]

`Judge blocks Trump plan to put thousands of USAID staff on leave' LINK
....Samantha Power, who was USAID chief under former President Joe Biden, wrote in a scathing New York Times opinion piece: "We are witnessing one of the worst and most costly foreign policy blunders in US history." The US is by far the biggest single provider of humanitarian aid around the world. USAID's budget amounts to around $40bn - about 0.6% of total US annual government spending of $6.75tn. The head of the United Nations' programme for tackling HIV/AIDS told the BBC the cuts would have dire impacts across the globe....
I wonder if anyone in the Trump administration has thought through the full implications of this action? In particular, that China will move in to replace the US and gain the goodwill of those countries worldwide.

Also, at the end of that article: 19 state attorney generals sued the Trump administration after Doge, a cost-cutting initiative led by Musk, received access to Treasury records that included Americans' personal financial data. They argued the access for Musk, a "special government employee" and Doge, which is not an official government department, violated federal law. Early on Saturday, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary injunction to prohibit access and ordered Musk and his team to immediately destroy any copies of records. The conditions are in place until the next court hearing on 14 February.

[Tizer]

Update and greater detail on the 2nd part of my last post...
`Judge blocks Musk team access to Treasury Department records' BBC

[Stanley]

See this latest report on Musk Peter... (LINK)

I noticed THIS initiative as well.
3 hours ago
President Donald Trump's administration has announced it will slash billions of dollars from overheads in grants for biomedical research as a part of broader cost-saving measures, a move some scientists say will stifle scientific advancements.

What's puzzling me is that I don't see a storm of protest against these actions or are they just not getting reported on?

[Tizer]

There are millions of scientists in the US alone and you can be sure there'll be a storm of protest in their community but at the moment they are probably too depressed at the moment to do anything outside the community. Scientists around the world will be affected too because so many of their projects are in cooperation with US colleagues. UK scientists were hit by Brexit's effect on their work with EU colleagues and now they face the same with their joint UK-US projects. Trump and Musk will be celebrating in glee at the disruption they have caused.

[Tripps]

Best to stay up late -
Now following Andrew Gwynne being chucked ot of Us Labour for intemperate remarks - we find that Oliver Ryan the 29 year old Us Labour MP for Burnley was a member of the Whatsapp group, and has done largely the same.
The spin today was that Gwynne was dealt with very quickly - so no doubt Ryan will be gone by lunchtime. His wiki says- He is openly LGBTQ+ (are there any that aren't?) which may complicate matters.

[Stanley]

You are quite right David.... I heard a whisper yesterday that there are councillors involved as well. See THIS for this morning's state of the wicket....
A second Labour MP has apologised for comments made in a WhatsApp chat, after Andrew Gwynne was sacked as a minister over messages he sent to the same group. Burnley MP Oliver Ryan said in a statement that comments he made in the group "were completely unacceptable" and he regretted "not speaking out at the time". Fellow MP Gwynne was sacked as health minister on Saturday after the Mail on Sunday reported, external he sent a string of offensive and abusive messages in the WhatsApp group, which contained other Labour figures. A government source told the PA news agency that the party's chief whip would speak to Ryan "and no action is off the table".
I have two questions.... Why can we not be given the gist of what they said (I heard another whisper that there was some anti-Semitism.) and how does apologising alter the mind-set that created the comments in the first place? (Is a bollocking from the Chief Whip enough?)

[Stanley]

You were right David! See THIS BBC report....
Burnley MP Oliver Ryan has become the second MP to be suspended from the Labour parliamentary party over his membership of a WhatsApp group which contained offensive messages. Ryan was summoned to a meeting with Chief Whip Sir Alan Campbell, after the Mail on Sunday published the messages. Ahead of the meeting he issued an apology in which he said the comments in the group had been "completely unacceptable" and he regretted "not speaking out at the time". He follows Andrew Gwynne, who was also sacked as a health minister, in losing the whip after his participation in the WhatsApp group was revealed. In his statement, Ryan said: "I did not see every message, but I accept responsibility for not being more proactive in challenging what was said." He added: "I also made some comments myself which I deeply regret and would not make today and for that, I wholeheartedly apologise." The messages - sent to the WhatsApp group named Trigger Me Timbers - are reported to show Ryan mocking a Labour MP for his sexuality, and denigrating the vice-chairman of the local Labour Party.
Now, what about the other members of the group? From the treatment of the two MPs it would seem obvious that they should all be 'administratively suspended'. (?)

[Tripps]

Now, what about the other members of the group?

The common factor seems to be Tameside Council. ( Ashton under Lyne - MP Angela Rayner). Andrew Gwynne is a former member of the Council. Yes - the council which has just had to have special measures imposed because of the funding of Child Services amongst other things. The CEO of Oldham Council has been parachuted in for four days a week to put things right. Three Thameside Council members have resigned their positions on the Council over the weekend - but not of course their actual seats!

Oliver Ryan was elected a Councilor in Tameside at the age of 19, and quickly progressed to be put in charge of Child Services. The department which eventually brought the whole Council down. They say his mother (one Mrs Lloyd) was on the panel that appointed him to the position. He is also 'openly' LGBTQ+ which may, or may not be relevant.

On the wider Labour Party front - and probably connected - the Extraordinary meeting of Oldham Council is scheduled for tomorrow, early evening, so get the pop corn in, and a comfy chair ready. It will probably be incomprehensible to the casual punter, (deliberately) and full of Labour obfuscation, but essential watching I'd say. That doesn't apply to anyone who is congenitally unable to think for themselves, and vote for any party other than Labour.

PS The BBC is well on the case now - 11 Councillors have been 'administratively suspended' including Andrew Glynne's wife who is a councillor on Thameside Council. The urge to serve the public is strong with them. BBC News

[Whyperion]

Quoting from Sky News Website (as BBC not detailed as yet)
11 Councillors Suspended
"Those suspended by Labour are two from Stockport and nine Tameside councils.

Reddish, part of Stockport, used to be in Gwynne’s constituency of Denton and Reddish before boundary changes.

It is understood the Tameside councillors include Gwynne’s wife, Allison Gwynne, former council leader Brenda Warrington, and Claire Reid, a member of Labour’s national policy forum."
Note that they may be members of the Councillor's WhatsApp group it is not certain if they posted or only read. The message group was set up apparently to co-ordinate local campaigning, leaflet content and so on.
To me who has time to use whatsapp, and time to think about some of the reported content when they should be doing council/community business.

[Stanley]

"That doesn't apply to anyone who is congenitally unable to think for themselves, and vote for any party other than Labour."
I vote LibDem in local elections David.... Does that let me off?
Looking at today's political news, the most obvious theme in all posts is don't upset Trump and where possible back America.
How that squares with fix the Brexit problem by getting closer to the EU beats me!

[Tizer]

PFI chickens come home to roost...
`Schools describe 'astronomical' bills as 25-year repair contract breaks down' LINK

[Tripps]

I vote LibDem in local elections David.... Does that let me off?

Yes - I think so. Local and national politics are not the same thing. I like the fact that David Whipp (as well as plotting a coup) is justifiably bragging about the improvenments to the flags in the Market Square, rather than obsessing about the situation in Gaza.

I have difficulty though in forgetting about Jeremy Thorpe, Cyril Smith, and David Steel, and would never support the party nationally.

PS Did anyone know that Elon Musks 12th (4 year old) child is called "X Æ A-Xii " ?

May you live in interesting times. . . .

[Tizer]

Yes, and I reckon it means `My dad's a crackpot'.
Seeing and hearing about Musk's behaviour makes me wonder if he got ideas from the Dominic Cummings Boris Johnson duo.