Recent content by tones

I'd amend that to "would quite probably have behaved in the same way". Just look at the adulation of Hitler by ordinary folk so often captured on film.

I confess that, when I saw this thread, the Holocaust was what came to my mind. There had been genocides before e.g. the Kaiser's attempt to annihilate an entire tribe in Sud-West Afrika (now Namibia) and the Armenian population of Ottoman Turkey, but in both cases this was because they were...

Don't know Mr. Lammy at all, but is he like the Marquis de Talleyrand, famously described by Napoleon as merde dans un bas de soie? A description that seems to fit much of the current Government rather well.

So, we are now in the midst of the Endarkenment. There's always the (vague) comfort that when fantasy collides with reality, fantasy always comes off second-best. The problem is the enormous damage caused before this happens. @Don, as a US resident, do you think there will still be a USA by the...

I don't think there's a lack of money - after all, the EU has just pledged more: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/13/eu-5bn-euro-boost-for-ukraine-military-aid-fund-russia the problem is that they don't have the hardware or (as yet) the manufacturing capacity to make the hardware...

What's gone wrong with the world? Why are we suddenly beset by total morons?

The thing that really baffles me is this; since the US Republicans are blocking US aid, why on earth aren't the Europeans buying from the USA the stuff that Ukraine really needs in a normal commercial transaction? I can't see the Republicans enraging their constituents by daring to prevent such...

How can you be so rude about your Saviour? She does have a book to sell (and possibly also a bridge in Brooklyn, should you be interested).

Not for nothing is JLC called the watchmaker's watchmaker - JLC has made calibres for all the big guys, such as Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. I believe the big date used by A. Lange & Söhne was originally developed by JLC (both are members of the Richemont luxury goods group).

A rather amusing excerpt from The Trump Bible, according to The New Yorker anyway: The Resurrection After Jesus was arrested, the crowd brought him before Pontius Pilate. “Tell me, Jesus Christ,” Pilate said. “Are you King of the Jews?” Which wasn’t that strange a question, because even today...

Bit harsh. Personally, I think there could be no worse punishment for Trump than to live the rest of his life as a loser. To disappear into obscurity would be the worst of all things.

Thank you, that's a very good article. Certainly the social systems of the Warsaw Pact/Comecon countries did provide a reasonable safety net for the majority of their citizens - they might not have the latest Mercedes (or even Trabant!) but life was generally OK. This was all swept away by the...

It suddenly hit me where I had previously seen this grille:

As is Hungary...

Partially also, I suspect, out of fear of Putin and his tactical nukes, of which he has rather many. However, we have already crossed so many of his red lines that we can be reasonably sure that only an attack on Russia itself would cause him to use them. Plus, his Chinese backers would not be...