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Our World Today

Discussion in 'Plymouth' started by Plymborn, Jun 25, 2017.

  1. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    Donald Trump is in England. He thinks citizens should be allowed to carry guns as a right. Anyone got a rifle?
     
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  2. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    I've just read a story on the BBC News site about the sleeping conditions for Police Officers who are being deployed for the Trump visit. Apparently they are being asked to kip in a gymnasium where there are rows of camp beds erected. Shock horror they aren't being put up in a 5* luxury hotel at tax payers expense. Heaven forbid a couple of days roughing it a bit.

    When I first joined the RN at 16 years old I was sent to HMS Raleigh for the initial 6 weeks. I was housed with about 30 others in a wooden hut which were infested with cockroaches at night. I was paid the princely sum of £5 per fortnight at the time. I went on to complete training at Chatham where I spent the next 4 months sharing with around 50 others. At sea it was common for the troops to have a space of about 15ft by 12 ft which was shared with 15 others and contained a locker for each one. You spent evening there and slept there and commissions were no less than 2 years doing it. I was married then with a child and my take home pay was £16 per week. I went on a course back at Chatham when qualifying for Petty Officer and spent 6 weeks in an attic in a building that leaked badly when it rained. The carpets in the mess were completely sodden along with half the beds and bedding. When a complaint was made we were told there was no other accommodation for us and we should "make the best of it". Excuse me if I don't get upset at a group of hairy blokes being asked to doss down for a couple of days whilst they get paid mega bucks in overtime.
     
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  3. notDistantGreen

    notDistantGreen Well-Known Member

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    I'm sure most of the rank and file in the emergency services are great public servants but you do worry about those around them, particularly in the unions.

    I saw a story a while back (years not months), based on a report sponsored by the fire brigades union which claimed the high temperatures close to fires were a risk to fire officers' health. Well, no **** Sherlock, but a bit of a pointless statement if fire officers are to extinguish fires I would have thought. The risk of somewhat high temperatures to those actually inside the blazing buildings wasn't mentioned.....
     
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  4. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    I have a brother-in-law who is now a retired police officer. He was in the force whilst the Miners strike was on and was one who volunteered for extra duties and being part of Maggie's army. To be fair it was a job and he did have a young family to feed and stuff at the time so like a lot of us was quite happy to earn a few extra bob or two. He earned so much in overtime and travel payments that at the end of the time he bought his first house.

    Also notdistant I dealt with a number of the rank and file in the emergency services in connection with my Housing job. Believe me when I tell you that at that time there were a number of them who could not give a fig for the public. Self interest yes and boy did they cover for each other no matter how bent it was.
     
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  5. notDistantGreen

    notDistantGreen Well-Known Member

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    Well I have no direct experience so I was assuming innocence.

    I'm not surprised at what you say though.

    I used to walk along Euston Road every day on my way to the office. There's a fire station between St Pancras and Euston railway stations. Every day I'd see a black cab in the staff car park. That one vehicle tells you a lot about why it's hard to get changes to working practices...

    Sent from my mobile phone - E&OE
     
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  6. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    Putin must be laughing all the way back to the Kremlin. Don and Vlad were the best of enemies and then they met over a cocktail or two. Love blossomed and now they are the best of lovers in this otherwise cruel world where everyone else tries to stitch them up. They will be having children and will live happily ever after.

    What a complete cock Trump is. I have to ask if he has any idea what goes on in the real World or does his World exist only in his fantasy. I cannot believe he is popular in America. On the other hand having met a few from across the pond perhaps I can.
     
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  7. notDistantGreen

    notDistantGreen Well-Known Member

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    I've been watching a documentary series on life in the new American Embassy saaath of the River Thames. The current ambassador, appointed by Trump, is Robert Wood (Woody) Johnson. He has no diplomatic experience (and it shows) but he is an heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical giant, so that's OK. He also plays golf, owns the New York Jets and a longstanding friend and supporter of Donald Trump, so that's OK too.

    It's fascinating watching this man who, like Trump, thinks diplomacy is the the same as deal making in business, dealing with career diplomats who are bravely trying to restrain the guy from destroying 75 years of US/UK partnership forged in WW2.

    Last week the series focused on the Consular staff dealing with visa applicants in the wake of Trump's anti-immigration diktats.

    This week we saw the secret process by which the US conveyed its views on Brexit to the UK Government. This entailed a cable being sent to London by highly secure communication system and being printed out and sealed in a bright red document bag by the Embassy's head of political affairs. This was then taken by him to the Foreign Office and verbally relayed to civil servants in a locked room. We were told that such documents were never handed over so that the Embassy had "deniability" if things went wrong. They say a diplomat is someone send abroad to lie for his country and that just about proves it. Clearly the US is keen on a hard Brexit so that it can sell us cholorinated chicken (yes chlorinated not coronation), GM vegetables and hormone enhanced American beef. We saw Brexiteer Michael Gove and the US State Department Head of Agriculture give conflicting speeches to the same group of no doubt bemused farmers.

    Also, there was quite a piece about defence spending generally and the F35 project particularly. Trump is a longstanding opponent of the F35, partly on the grounds of cost and partly because it's being built by an international consortium - the so called export of American jobs. Woody met with the Embassy military diplomats and asked whether the F35 was a good project. He was told the F35 would greatly enhance the UK's military capability. Woody wasn't interested in that and said he and the President were only interested in the money, not whether it was a good weapon system. Was it a good deal? For the USA. Yes it was a good deal. Woody smelled a rat at this much too easy answer. Was it an exceptional deal? At this point you could see the diplomat would say anything to end the conversation and said 'yes, it's exceptional'. Woody was then happy but if that's the quality of the debate, God help us.

    Woody then found out that he would sit in an F35 simulator at some convention coinciding with the first RAF/RN F35's arriving in the UK. It obviously occurred to him that he was likely to crash it into the simulated sea with people watching which would undermine his alpha male persona. There was then a laughable conversation in which his military minions tried to reassure him that he was obviously the sort of man that could master a £100m fifth generation fighter jet in the time it takes ordinary mortals to boil a kettle. Woody was reassured and managed eventually to fire off a missile that missed the sitting duck target that had been placed there for him.

    Most importantly though, Woody made sure new US flags were flown at his official residence. They are bigger than the old ones, but too big and he felt sure the President would like them.

    If you want to be terrified by the calibre of people now running the most powerful country on earth, watch it from behind the sofa.
     
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  8. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    Sadly though notdistant none of that is a shock is it. Trump is intent on sacking everyone who was part of Obahma's staff and reversing everything he introduced. Nothing of his own just throw out the previous. He appoints his own secret squirrel people and then publicly overturns the conclusion they have come to regarding Putin only to reverse that statement everyone and his dog has heard when taken to task. The man has no class and absolutely no idea about anything apart from keeping rich people very rich. "I told Mrs May what she should do" is another classic. When fed up with his arse statements she tells us it was to sue the EU. What a brainstorm that is and why on earth didn't we see that one ourselves.

    Trump is a class moron of the first degree and anyone he appoints generally falls into the same category. It just shows the mentality of his nation who it still appears think he is doing a pretty good job. Mind you shouting kick out the foreigners is normally a pretty good slogan to chuck at the redneck fraternity. He learned that one from Nigel Farage who did it here pretty well. If ever the right wing takes over the world again then god help us.
     
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  9. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    Watching the news today I see that the nice Sir Cliff was "in tears" after his appearance in Court where he was suing the Beeb for damages following their revelations of the police raid on his home a while back. £210kwhich is liable to be higher eventually was the award he got. Thing is though I have every sympathy with his case. Somebody in the Police quite obviously tipped the beeb off that they were raiding. That's the first wrong. Then they went in with helicopters and the like and filmed the raid whilst it was happening. That's the second wrong. Then without any evidence he had done anything wrong they named him on the main news as a possible sex offender. That's the worst one and the third wrong. I have never thought it right to name people who are arrested or are in Court before any guilt verdict is made. If for whatever reason they are not convicted then there is no excuse for ruining their reputation or anything else. You and I both know that a load of people will do the no smoke without fire stuff so no matter it was not guilty in the end their reputation is ruined. Possibly their job and marriage and family life slides majestically down the pan with it all. That cannot be right.

    To make matters worse the Beeb are now thinking of appealing. The statement is that they had the story and it was in the public interest to run with it. Indeed it would be a dereliction of duty not to. To be told not to run the story is apparently like a gagging order on a free press. That if I may say so is the biggest load of cock I've ever heard. The truth is, and they can deny it all they want to but I don't believe them, that they had pronounced him guilty because of all the other cases that had already gone on and thought they had an exclussive and ran it before anyone else could. What they are about to pay out to him is our money and not their's. I object to that and I think that heads should definately roll with the people responsible being responsible for the bill as well. Why should I pay it? If they do decide to appeal then it should be out of their pocket not mine and they should also be looking for another job.
     
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  10. notDistantGreen

    notDistantGreen Well-Known Member

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    Great fan as I am of the BBC, I still agree with every word of that Sensible. Someone described what's going on now as an unholy alliance between the BBC and the tabloid gutter press trying to argue this is an attack on press freedom. It's not.

    They got dragged into the hysteria following the Jimmy Saville case in which it seemed if you were male and were a celebrity in the 60's and 70's, then you were by definition a paedophile. How far have the police ploughed into a mire investigating Edward Heath (10 years dead by the way) based largely on a ring of related parties, some of whom made multiple allegations in different names and a man who's been charged with 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of fraud whose own family have stated is a fantasist?

    It wouldn't have been some bad if the Beeb had merely reported the fact the Richards' house had been searched as part of a new bulletin but live coverage using a helicopter for Christ's sake? It's a not a war zone or a natural disaster.
     
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    Last edited: Jul 19, 2018

  11. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    Cliff could see through the windows of his home whilst in Portugal as the police went through his belongings at the same time as millions of us could on TV.

    The Police new they were in the wrong and cocked it up a long time ago and quickly paid up and apologized to Cliff Richard.....the BBC were desperate to right the wrong of Jimmy Saville and got it incredibly wrong...but are hiding behind this crap about the freedom of the press...and are considering an appeal....I'm pretty sure that the real big-wigs at the BBC will surely scotch that....and those who represented the BBC in this case...will disappear into oblivion forever.

    Cliff Richard has spent millions on fighting this case....none of which can right the hurt and smearing of his character....the finds paid by the Police and the BBC are a pittance and go nowhere towards paying the costs of such a high profile case.
     
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  12. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    Been watching the News about half of Europe being on fire at the moment. There seems to have been loads of them and other catastrophes around the Globe over the last few months. No doubt this will give the Global Warming brigade a load more ammunition to tell us what we are all doing wrong. Having said that it does all look quite serious doesn't it. I have a theory that it's God's revenge for the out vote. He doesn't agree with it so he is destroying Europe in protest.
     
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  13. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    How many of those fires have been started deliberately.....some of those down the west coast of USA/Canada had been.
     
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  14. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    The very comment I made when I was watching it plym. It saddens me that there are so many thick people in this world. But then again it's a laugh ain't it. I was sat on my computer the other evening when a loud bang occurred. It was because some fecking moron had thrown a stone from the car park 30 yards up the park from my house. It hit a window, then the underside of the boxed in eves of the roof and bounced off. Fortunately it didn't go through the window or break anything else or more to the point hit anyone on it's way. But, it's just a laugh ain't it. I was about to march up there and confront but the wife wouldn't let me. Probably something to do with the heart attack I had a couple of years ago. So they just get away with it because they "can". Call the Police? Nah. They just wouldn't come for that and I might have got a visit 3 days later. If I had done that when I was a youngster I would have expected to get chased at least. If caught I would have got a smack around the ear both from the person whose house it was and my father when he learned of it. But, I had more respect than that to do it in the first place. Now it's just a laugh. One of my neighbours confronted some kids a few years ago over something they did. No proof but somebody set fire to his car a couple of hours later. That's what my missus wanted to avoid I think. So they get away with most things nowadays and setting fire to the countryside a causing millions of euros worth of damage and risking lives and property is having a laugh. I'm sounding like a bitter old git now but I make no appologies.
     
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  15. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    A lot of talk today about relaxing the use of vaping in public places...for instance on Buses and Station platforms.

    Personally I would be quite vocal about sitting on a bus with someone blowing out clouds of chemical vapour for us all to enjoy together and have literally having no view because of the density of some types of vaping....it would remind me of travelling in S London during the 1950/60's.

    Also I feel that one day they will find out how these chemicals can kill you just like nicotine has been doing....there has been a case study in the USA to that effect.

    Have you ever seen a vaping shop where the counter staff down the far end are semi-disappearing into a cloud from their knees upwards.
     
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  16. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    Those drivers amongst us.... have you noticed how subtle changes are being made by local councils regarding parking meters (doesn't affect sensible with his little fold up scooter).
    In the past when a meter was broken, you could get away with sticking a note on your windscreen saying that the meter wasn't working, and meters would get repaired pretty quickly.

    That situation has changed ever since the phone-up system of paying came into use. Broken meters it seems don't get repaired so often....in fact they don't get repaired at all....because they know that you will have to phone their parking number to legally park in that bay.

    So that means they need less staff to empty meters regularly....and it cuts down on meter vandalism because they stay empty of coins.

    That will eventually lead to no meters being needed because we will all have to have phone accounts for parking...assuming you have a phone that is sophisticated enough to pay by.....I have just a simple Doro phone that allows me to phone (and text with difficulty) and take poor quality pictures with....that is all I need when I'm out and about....I don't need to walk down the pavement bouncing off other people surfing the internet. My internet is at home not bothering anyone else.

    Another down will still be... parking meter attendants, who will still be trolling around looking for those who are late returning to their vehicles and with delight slap fines on windscreens. This is one of the most odious jobs ever invented....what sort of person does this type of job for a living.....maybe people that enjoy some form of power, ex-military drill instructors, those with a chip against the world....etc...etc...etc.
     
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  17. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    The Swedish election is showing swings towards the right....so liberal Swedes are saying enough is enough over immigration.....they have taken in more than any other country....or so they say....blaming them for the rising crime rate.
     
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  18. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    Be honest plym it isn't immigration it's asylum seekers we are talking about. Economic migrants go somewhere to work and send money home if they don't take their families with them. The other variety who just turn up because they are "fleeing" are the ones without a job and therefore probably turn to crime to feed themselves. I don't think you can just brand a whole group of foreign people under one blanket. Politically though it isn't surprising Countries swing to the right when the standard of living of the locals is put to the test. Nobody wants to pay their hard earned to somebody else and watch their standard of living fall through the floor. This is happening all over Europe now and will continue to rise.
     
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  19. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    Asylum seekers would be the main cause of the trouble....your right in pointing that out.....It does look possible that Sweden will have an hung parliament because of the gains by a right wing nationalist party with neo-Nazi roots.... gaining from the main-stream centrist parties who would have had a majority.
    This right-wing party called...Sweden Democrats... which blames immigrants for a recent surge in rapes, sex-attacks and riots was last night set to secure 18% of the vote.....the ruling centre-left Social Democrats were in the lead with 28% of the vote, down from 31% in the 2014 election and it's lowest score in decades... the other main party is the Centre-Right Moderates scoring 19% of the vote.

    In Germany officials called for calm yesterday after two Afghans were detained on suspicion of killing a German man in a fight....fuelling fears of more anti-foreigner unrest after racist violence shook the city of Chemnitz recently.
    The incident was expected to stoke anti-migrant tensions, coming just two weeks after the fatal stabbing of a 35 year-old German in Chemnitz....allegedly by two asylum seekers sparked protests.
    There are fears of a repeat of those scenes, when thousands took to the streets in protest that led to assaults on foreign-looking people.....while some made the illegal Nazi salute.....Holger Stahlknecht, the state of Saxony-Anhalt's interior minister, urged residents to "keep calm" and allow justice to take its course.
     
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  20. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    1.....Serena Williams got stuck into Chair Umpire Carlos Ramos when he ruled that her coach Patrick Mouratoglou was giving tactical hints from the stand....which he later admitted to....she was penalized a point for a coaching violation.
    2.....Between games Williams and Umpire Ramos have another exchange...."I have never got a coaching violation because I don't do it"....I've never cheated.
    3.....This all happens in the second set after losing the first set 6-2....Williams has a tantrum at 3-2 up and smashes her racket into the ground....earning her a second violation and a penalty point......she is still angry at Umpire Carlos...demanding that he owed her an apology and that he was a liar and a thief for giving her penalty points.
    4.....Her Japanese opponent Naomi Osaka with the help of a penalty game against Williams is leading now 5-4....this is after Williams had demanded tournament referee Brian Earley comes on court and Williams starts to claim the Ramos is being racial and claims it's all because she is a women.
    5.....After losing the match 6-2 6-4....she refuses to shake the Umpires hand....and she is still ranting during the post-match press conference....By now Naomi Osaka has broken down in tears......Williams tells the press-conference that she is "fighting for womens rights and for womens equality and for all types of stuff....for Ramos to take a game, so I called him a thief....it made me feel like it was a sexist remark.

    During all this cuffle it mustn't be forgot that Naomi Osaka played a blinder even through Williams ranting and complaining.
    Williams has been fined $17,000 (£13,200) for her conduct.

    Of course womens right supporters...such as Billy Jean King have supported Williams point of view.....Carlos Ramos has always been seen as an fair and honest Umpire well respected on the circuit.

    Williams had earlier in the tournament complained about Umpire Mariana Alves and some of the calls that she made.....Alves did not officiate during the rest of the tournament.
    Also when Williams was called for a foot fault on match point of her semi-final she threatened to shove a ball down a line judge's throat.

    I think Wiliams sees herself as a superior human being....she comes over to me as "don't you realize who I am" type of person.

    At the end of the day the rules of the game should be equally played whoever the player is....she was losing....get over it.
     
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