There was one!!!

What was it?

Also the younger generation needs to step up and run for office. The disillusionment with politics runs deep, but just staying out of it isn’t an option.

In that movie where that guy kisses his sister. 👉👈

That’s the sequel.

You can go back further than that.

The 1917 russian revolution kicked it off. The fear of a workers revolution happening in the US started a campaign of labelling everything socialist and communist as anti-american.

It’s the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Your COUNTING sick days. Sick days are generally not counted elsewhere. There are limitations on the number of consecutive days you can take without getting signed off by a doctor, but that’s it. Had one team member that got frequent migraines, and averaged about 1 sick day every two weeks. Good employee, just took a lot of sick leave. Questions were asked but because it was a valid reason nothing was done.

What you’re describing is 25 days off plus public holidays. Very normal.

…and to bring you in line with the rest of the world.

Yes. You’re being a dick.

Elephants aren’t religious (as far as I know) yet even they will gather to say goodbye to a family member. When the day comes, you’ll want to too.

I’d disagree. It certainly means being against unbounded capitalism. I think you need heavy regulation on companies, but not the elimination of them.

You’re talking about how a particular party or group within a party behaves. Presumably you’re talking about the DSA. That’s fine.

Being socialist just means being an advocate for policies which put society above the individual.

• Public education / healthcare / housing
• A strong welfare system
• Favouring government run services for necessities over corporate solutions. E.g. water / power / transport services.

Being socialist just means that you agree that those a good goals. It doesn’t say anything about how you think they should be achieved.

Well, the president claims most of his power from the fact he’s elected by the people, but I think many would agree that no one man should hold the power of the president. It’s too open to abuse.

I might not be socialist…

Why not?

If that’s true in the US, then god help you. I know they still exist in the UK.

The 2008 bailout happened because it was the banking sector that was exposed. If the consumer banks fail, everybody’s accounts go up in flames.

Part of getting that bailout was that the banks had to restructure to insulate commercial banking from investment banking. Supposedly the investment arm can now get taken out, and the damage to the commercial arm is limited. I’ll believe that when I see it. The big question at the moment is “how exposed are the banks?”.

Oracle, Nvidia, Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic are all massively exposed. Nvidia and Microsoft might be big enough for a decimated version of themselves to come out the other side. Everyone else is going to the wall. No need to bail them out though. That’s a contained explosion.

If the bank are making loans of hundreds of billions thinking they’re sure fire money makers, but actually they’re piles of shit, then it’s 2008 again. That’s when we see if they really protected the commercial arms of their banks.

Well…a condom would let nothing through.

Are you saying you’re a broken condom?

Have a high res version

At least this is money primarily going to UK workers.

Trident pisses me off because it buys missile we’re perfectly capable of designing and making ourselves. Relying on another nation for last resort national defence is bonkers if you have the choice.

Isn’t that 2020 thinking?

Ukraine has show how they are vulnerable.

It’s Trident.

Andy Burnham is expected to unveil on Thursday an £8.4bn investment for the UK’s next generation of nuclear submarines.

Aimed at preparing Dreadnought-class boats for service by the 2030s, the nuclear-armed vessels are set to replace the current Vanguard-class and will be equipped to launch Trident 2 D5 ballistic missiles

This is on top of £16B since the 2020 defence spending report, and £30-40B before that (Wikipedia is a bit fuzzy on some of it). This is sunk-cost spending (no pun intended). There’s no other option except cancel the program.

…and none of it covers the missiles, which isn’t an independent system.

We need to have much better government procurement oversight. Contract values need to be understood properly upfront. Bids are intentionally low, with companies knowing that once they’re “in” costs can go up and they’ll get paid. It’s a well understood strategy, but it continually happens.