The mutterings of a freelance software engineer. (Be honest now, who amongst us should not be doing something more productive than tweeting?) GC, Right Leaning
Europe
Joined September 2009
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Oh bugger this.
I am a straight white, right wing, cishet Male, but I want
1) Adverts featuring gay male couples.
2) Idris Elba as James Bond.
Sir Rob the skiving. #LBFB retweeted
If you don't want to be permanently damaged while looting or vandalizing, then don't loot or vandalize.
That seems simple enough.
This loops us back to the "language" problem; the rioters are speaking in violence, and this idiot is whining that others are more eloquent.
Sir Rob the skiving. #LBFB retweeted
Your name is Jean-Marc, you’re 46, and you run a video game and collectibles shop in Nice, wedged between an optician and a real estate agency selling 1-bed flats for €410,000 “with sea view” if you lean far enough off the balcony.
You know every GTA San Andreas cheat by heart. You tested all of them in 2005 on the PS2 in your bedroom at your mum’s place.
You opened in 2011 with a state-backed loan at 4.7%, and the naive belief that passion eventually pays.
It did pay, sort of. €1,900 a month in a good year, after the French tax office has eaten first, second and third. Your commercial rent is indexed on a formula nobody in the Republic actually understands.
You sell Funko Pops at €17.99, sealed Pokémon cards, refurbished controllers. You let little Enzo, 12, pay in installments because he’s saving for a Switch 2. You close at 7:30pm and walk home because the harbor parking is €3.40 an hour.
Saturday, there’s a protest “against the cost of living.”
You also think living costs too much. You almost went.
At 5:12pm, your metal shutter gets ripped open with a crowbar.
Forty teenagers in tracksuits and crossbody bags walk into your shop like it’s a bonus level. They take the PS5s, the Dragon Ball figures, the till with today’s €280 and even the box of paper bags that say “thank you for your visit.”
A guy in a floral shirt films it vertically for TikTok.
You step outside and say “stop, this is my shop.”
You get hit from behind.
Then rocks.
They laugh. Floral shirt guy is thrilled: good angle, good lighting.
Sunday morning, the police tell you there are “1,400 arrests nationwide” and they won’t send a squad for some Funko Pops. Filing the complaint takes 2 hours 40. The officer types with two fingers on Windows 7.
Monday noon, your insurer reminds you that your €1,140-a-year policy has a €3,000 deductible and a “riots and civil commotion” exclusion on page 31, font size 6.
Saturday night, an MP explains on TV that “the anger is legitimate” and we “shouldn’t cry over shop windows.” He’s never owned a shop window. He has a state-funded apartment.
Sunday, your limited edition Vegeta figures show up on Vinted. “Brand new, never opened, €39, pickup in North Nice.”
The seller has 4.9 stars.
Monday, the tax office emails you. They haven’t heard about the riots. They’ve heard about your payment deadline.
You did everything right, Jean-Marc. That was never the problem.
The problem is you were playing by the rules in a lobby where nobody else does.
So stop believing in the State. It’s not coming to save you. It’s coming to collect.
Stop voting. Every five years they hand you the controller, and it’s never plugged in.
Go to the gym. Not for revenge. For you. Because when the system folds, the only asset nobody can loot is the one you built under a barbell.
And make money they can’t see. Cash, side hustles, sats on a cold wallet in a sock drawer. Not your keys, not your coins. Not your shop, not your loss.
Fuck the system, Jean-Marc.
It already did it to you first.
That guy built a business.
The rioters have built nothing.
Put a hundred nerds on one island, a thousand thugs on another, and see where they are in thirty years time.
The nerds will have built, the thugs will have beaten each other up.
Sir Rob the skiving. #LBFB retweeted
This guy embodies one of the most popular archetypes used to bully white men throughout the world. Yet after being attacked, he gets back up, stands his ground, and faces his attackers to defend whatever remains of his store.
His attackers, meanwhile, behave like a pack of hyenas. Whatever bravery they have is only because of their numbers and their de facto anonymity — police wouldn’t arrest them anyway.
So, the guy who looks like the punchline of a thousand jokes actually displays more honor in a single moment than literally the entire recorded history of his attackers.
He has no crowd to hide behind, no numerical advantage, and seemingly very little left to protect. What has happened to him will either be ignored or excused as having been caused by some kind of socio-economic problem which is ultimately his fault anyway. Nevertheless, he stands there.
I would take one thousand Jacques Blacks before taking a single refugee.
Stuck with a bunch of rugby fans.
Since they’re a bunch of loud Stella swigging cunts, it’s clear that they’re League rather than Union.
Got on to a train to find someone reorganising everyone else’s luggage, leaving one bag suspicious near the door.
Owner of that bag noticed and went to retrieve it.
Common courtesy: don’t move other people’s stuff any more than you have to, which is normally not at all.
Managed to do some digital hygiene rather than doom scrolling.
Three thousand photos archived, several hundred tabs closed.
I’d love to think that this was Labour’s long-game to boost reading and physical media sales.
But none of them can think that far ahead, and I’m not sure that many of them can read!
I referred to this post the other day, looking at the comments on it, many utterly missed CB’s point.
The rally points and routes of these supposed marches were suicidal: right through high migrant, high crime areas. Anyone taking part would have been in serious danger.
The crucial detail about fighting for your country: is it actually your country?
Not a chance me or mine would go off to fight foreign wars while all the time our replacements are facilitated in their invasion of our country by the same Government sending me off to fight.
If this social trajectory continues, we won't be fighting in far flung places, we will be fighting on our streets.
#UkraineConflict
Machine translated from Chinese.
I’ve heard similar accounts before.
非洲真的很缺水吗？其实“懒”才是他们穷的根本原因。有数据显示，非洲地下水储量是地表的100倍，为何他们不挖井，而是到处找水？
我之前跟着一支海外工程队在那边待了快八个月，亲眼见过太多让人匪夷所思的事，说出来真的好多人都不敢信。我们当时的营地建在一片开阔的草地上，刚过去的时候要解决用水问题，队里找了个测水的师傅随便找了个地方打井，打到不到十二米就出了清水，水质甜得很，除了供我们队四十多个人吃喝洗澡，还能引出一垄水浇我们开出来的小菜园，天天浇水都用不完。
而离我们营地不到两公里的地方，就有一个百十来口人的部落村子，我第一次跟着采购去村里的时候，就看见全村人都围着一个半米深的泥坑接水，那水浑得放半小时都澄清不了，水面上还飘着虫子和牲畜的粪便，小孩渴了蹲下来直接舀了就喝，大人也不管，不少小孩隔三差五就拉肚子，缺药耽误着能拖出大病，看着真的让人心疼。我当时就问翻译，咱们这边打井出了这么多水，他们咋不来打一口？翻译笑笑说，你往后看就知道了，不是水的事。
没过多久工程闲下来，队长说反正咱们设备人都有，不如免费帮他们打一口井，也算做件好事，结果第一步就卡壳了。村长带着一群人堵在我们选好的井址，说这块地是他们部落的公用土地，要打井就得给他们十袋面粉五桶食用油外加两箱汽水，不然别想动土。我们队里想着反正也不多，给就给了，就当换一口井给村里人用，这点东西对我们来说不算什么。
接下来要找几个当地人帮忙打下手搬东西，我们说好一天给一斤玉米面两瓶汽水，这个待遇在当地已经够一个三口之家吃饱喝足了，比他们自己瞎晃赚得多太多，结果来了五个人，干了不到四十分钟，全都撂挑子坐到树底下乘凉去了，说太阳太晒，会晒伤皮肤，祖宗规矩就是正午不能干活，要等太阳落山再干活。我们想着入乡随俗那就等，结果太阳落山之后，连个人影都没见着，第二天上午好不容易来了三个，还要求必须先给汽水玉米面，不给就不动手，我们给了之后，三个人晃悠着挖了不到半米，又坐下来歇着聊天了，一聊就是一上午，第三天干脆全都不来了，托人带话来说拿到的吃的够喝够吃好几天，先回家休息，吃完了再来。
最后没办法，我们工程队自己上手，不到十天就打出了一口出水稳定的井，还给他们在井口安了简易的提水架，放了两个大木桶，跟村长说以后大家随便来打水，只要别往井里扔垃圾就行。一开始村里人可开心了，天天排着队来打水，结果半个月不到，井口就堵了，我们过去一看，大大小小的树枝石头烂叶子堵了小半井，原来大家打完水垃圾随手就扔在井口边上，下雨一冲全进去了。我们免费帮他们清干净，反复跟村长和村民说不要扔垃圾，要保持井口干净，结果不到两个月，又堵了，之后村长干脆来找我们，说井坏了，你们再帮我们打一口新的吧，那语气说得理所当然，好像我们就该天天给他们收拾烂摊子。
我之前还碰到过一次，营地的围墙坏了一段，找了四个当地工人来修，说好一天干完给对应的工钱，结果四个工人八点开工，九点就歇着喝茶，十点吃早饭，十二点要睡午觉，睡到下午三点才起来，干了不到一小时又说要回家喂孩子，一天下来只码了不到五块砖，第二天还过来要全额工钱，说我们没给他们提供茶和饼，所以干得慢，钱不能少给，当时给我们队长气得直接把他们赶走了。
待得久了我才发现，这种事真的不是个例。有个二十多岁的小伙子天天来我们营地卖野果，我们看他挺活络，就说你干脆天天给我们营地送菜，我们一个月给你固定的工钱，比你卖野果稳定多了，结果他干了三天，第四天就不见了，过了一周晃悠过来，问他为啥不来，他说前三天赚的钱够花了，在家歇着花完了再来。还有国际援助组织免费给他们发蔬菜种子，教他们开荒种地，说种好了够全村吃大半年，结果一半种子被他们煮着吃了，剩下的随便往地里一撒，既不浇水也不除草，长不出来就接着等着发援助。
真的，很多人说非洲穷是因为气候不好历史遗留问题，可我们明明看到脚底下十几米就是清水，储量够整个村子用几十年，有人免费帮你打出来，就只要随手维护一下都做不到。他们不是没有力气，跑出去找野果跳篝火舞能折腾一整天，一说到干活赚饭吃，半小时就喊累；也不是没有资源，地下水摆在那，援助摆在那，就是不肯伸手去动。
我待了八个月见过好多口废弃的援助井，全都是打完没两年没人维护废了，当地人宁愿背着水桶走三四公里去接脏雨水，也不肯花半天时间清一清堵了的井口。你说这到底是延续了几千年的靠天吃饭的生活方式已经刻进骨子里改不了，还是真的就是“懒”才导致一直摆脱不了穷呢？你怎么看这件事？
To pay attention in this country is to watch everything that you’ve ever built or loved be burned to the ground.
£260bn more borrowing means permanently higher debt interest. It already hit £109bn last year (8% of all government spending).
At current yields, every extra £100bn of debt adds roughly £5bn a year in interest forever. That’s money that can’t go on services or tax cuts.
Labour wants credit for fiscal responsibility.
Bold strategy.
Sir Rob the skiving. #LBFB retweeted
It says much about The Labour Party that they invested so much hope in an unopposed, rather lacklustre, inexperienced and out of his depth manchild - he was hardly a great MP back in the day under Blair.
Having dumped the gobby Fabian Mayor on the UK, they must now be starting to realise the low limits of their collective intelligence. And this is a problem for Labour; over the last few years they seem to have convinced themselves that intellect and wit are a far right construct.
But groupthink Fabianism is a comfort blanket for those who hate critical thinking and it's all about pretending you know what you're doing.
Look across cabinet, and it's plain to see that no one has the experience or apptitude for their portfolio. This is a naive, pretend government that resembles a dysfunctional parish council.
Sir Rob the skiving. #LBFB retweeted
Spot the difference,
A white drug addict gets his 15 year old girlfriend hooked on drugs.
When she is 17 they are engaged but she sadly died when he gave her an overdose.
A judge sends him down for 8 years.
Now explain why a Groomer can overdose a 15 year old victim to death while preparing her for another gang rape but he only gets a 3 and a half year sentence?
And then ask why Manchester Police had 97 Grooming suspects with 57 victims but suddenly they closed the investigation down, just after a child victim claimed that a serving police officer was among her rapists?
getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-…
Sir Rob the skiving. #LBFB retweeted
My vote on Brexit was affected by disinformation. I voted Remain because I was told if Leave won there would be terrible consequences.
The BoE Governor told me he would raise interest rates - he lowered them.
The Chancellor said he'd have an emergency budget - he didn't.
The Treasury said unemployment would go up - it went down.
Goldman Sachs and others said they would pull out of Britain - they spent billions on new HQs
The Chief Executive of the NHS Alliance said there would be an epidemic of super-gonorrhoea.
As for foreign interference - The EU, the US and Irish Presidents etc etc all weighed in on the side of Remain.
