Russ

CRABCORE!

Nuno at Lusithand put out a video the other day of a bass with a pair of Turner pickups and his new updated NFP Mk2 circuit, doing the Wal thing. I think it absolutely nails the tone. What do you think?

For the most part, Republicans have historically been very fond of states' rights - hence them permitting states to set their own restrictions on abortion, etc, and , in the past, on civil rights. They're not so keen on states' rights when they come into conflict with something like the Project 2025 agenda. There are going to end up being court battles about this - some states are not going to touch his federal government's demands with a bargepole. We're already seeing states going against the removal of DEI, the legality of firing so many federal employees, etc, and they will find their way up to the Supreme Court, and we all know which way they lean now.

There's plenty of other places to source sufficient weaponry from. Canada makes armoured vehicles and munitions. South Africa produces vast quantities of weapons, munitions and vehicles. Europe already has excellent homegrown fourth-generation jet fighters (thinking the Typhonn, the Rafale and the Gripen) and has a couple of fifth-gen ones in the pipeline. Britain is a global leader in drone tech, electronic warfare and aircraft avionics. Like it or not, weapons manufacturing = jobs, economic growth and security. I'm a pacifist, but I'm also a realist.

I don't like it either, but where else was he going to get it from? Schools? The NHS? The police? Social care? State pensions? All of which are far more pressing hot-button issues to people in the UK. People don't understand the value of foreign aid - it helps prevent wars starting in the first place, and spreads "soft power". But, in a situation where a geopolitical situation requires a bit more than just soft power (as it increasingly seems to be right now) it's the only place I can think of where they can redirect funds from and not piss off the British public. They can always raise foreign aid again once this particular situation has been navigated and the economy gets into a better state of growth.

A plurality, not a majority.

Can't watch it right now (being that I'm in the US, but hopefully not for all that much longer) - what are they saying?

There is no working with Tr**p. If it wasn't obvious before that Putin has him firmly by the balls, then it is now. He showed himself as a petulant, bullying child who isn't fit to sit in that same office as so many great statesmen who came before him. This will lose him a lot more friends than it'll make him.

I don't think anything Zelenskyy would have said would have changed what happened today. It was prepared. There was even a TASS (Russian newsagency) reporter in the house. This was performative, pre-planned bullying for an audience of one - Putin.

Sweden's Satcube has full coverage in Ukraine, is just as fast as Starlink, and they'd be able to switch over and hardly miss a beat.

Zelenskyy has just been dealing with three years of absolute horror. A few hours of having to deal with Shitler and his couch-f**king yappy dog is nothing in comparison. He's leaving the US with the high ground.

I had hoped he'd go full "David from Love Actually" at yesterday's meeting, but the diplomatic, flattering approach seemed to reap rewards. But, after what happened today, I fully expect a rebuke from Starmer. Almost every other European leader has come out in support of Zelenskyy over the past hour or two.

Starmer should threaten to revoke the invitation for the state visit. And if there's even one more mention of the whole Canada "51st State" thing, he should be reminded that the King would take a dim view of anyone who might attempt to invade one of his dominions. The thing is, Tr**p would probably lay off - he loves the pomp and circumstance stuff. He considers himself royalty and wants to be accepted as such.

They're playground bullies who now relish that they get to bully people on the world stage. All that was missing was a wedgie, a bogwash and some "your mum" jokes. There's a European security summit in London this weekend that almost all European leaders, including Starmer and Zelenskyy, will be attending. I'm expecting some interesting developments.

He could sell access to Ukraine's minerals to the EU. Or China. Have a bidding war that the US would not be a part of. That pays for a lot of weaponry, and it'd really, really piss Tr**p off. He deserves it after today's embarrassing escalating $hitshow.

Streeting seems to be a pragmatist rather than an ideologue. He knows where they need to get to, and what resources are available, and unfortunately a lot of those resources are not within the NHS itself. As someone who is a Labour man, I'm not against using private services where it is cost-effective to do so and where it will improve outcomes and reduce waits. Of course I'd prefer it if Nye Bevan's original vision for the NHS was maintained, but (largely thanks to 14 years of mismanagement) that's not where we are right now and a course correction is required.

Yep. The negotiators went into a gunfight armed with a spoon. They had no idea what they were doing, or even the rules of the game. I got the impression they went in there all cocksure, all "we're the UK, you need us and you'll give us what we ask for", and they weren't treated that way at all. Davis, Frost and co were entirely unprepared, only had the vaguest of outlines of what was achievable, and were pretty much winging it the whole way.

The negotiators working for the Tories the last time we went through this seemed willing to put everything on the table - the post-Brexit desperation for anything that could be spun as a foreign or trade policy win was very much apparent. That won't be the case now. Starmer and Streeting seem a bit more flexible than I'd like on allowing private interests into the NHS, but I think it's highly unlikely that they'd offer up much of value. Maybe the opportunity to bid on IT systems contracts or something like that (goodness knows the NHS is in desperate need of properly joined-up IT systems). No insurance companies, and no clinical commissioning.

The Australian system would work better. Basically, it's all free, but if you earn over a particular amount (I think it's AU$97,000 right now - about £48k) you either have to pay up to 1.5% more income tax depending on how much over that amount you pay, or you have to get private insurance. The French system is not much different to the NHS - the main difference is that your contribution to it is itemised on your taxes (as membership of a "mutuelle"). It also comes with (small) co-pays for doctors' appointments. Breaking out NHS funding into a separate line item on your taxes might not be a bad thing, rather than the funding for it just coming out of general taxation. I know you get that pie chart every year from HMRC that shows what percentage of your taxes are going to what, but seeing it as an actual amount might remind people that it's not actually free, just free at the point of access.

I think the Simon Gallup bass and the Robert Smith guitar are the nicest things they make. Thought about picking up one of the Robert Smith baritones a while back, but the price was offputting. I would quite like to have a go on the Berthoud bass though, especially the 6-string when it comes out. I don't like how Schecter have changed all their branding to fit a "metal" aesthetic - the gothic font logo, etc. The old logo was far classier and much less tied into a genre.

G&L make excellent basses, even the inexpensive ones are great, with a sound of their own. I think their problem is visibility - there's very few pros that you see playing them out there. It's a bit like the issues Yamaha has, but more so. Those who know, know, but you've mostly not heard of them. When you buy into a brand, you feel like you're going to be joining a club of likeminded players, and there really aren't that many big names you could say you're in that club with when you play the likes of G&L, and most of the players on their endorsers page are probably better known for playing other brands.

The only people who could do it are the military. That's probably why he's stacking the military leadership with loyalists right now. I would be entirely unsurprised if the secret service of another country decided to intervene. Something like the infamous 1981 Georgi Markov assassination with a "Bulgarian Umbrella".

Congress is supposed to be the arbiter of all laws, and the House has the power of the purse - all budgets are decided there. But yep, all Republican senators and representatives have the sword of Damocles over their head if they don't go along with Tr**p's wishes - Musk will finance a primary challenge against them, and they can't afford to outspend him.

My band was called Earthbound - there's at least a dozen other Earthbounds out there, so we rather unimaginatively renamed ourselves Earthbound AD. It was either that or The Earthbound Four, but we decided against it in case we decided to go back to being a five-piece.

Almost all the chip fabs in the US are owned by Intel or Texas Instruments, and they're either building simple chips for home appliances, or very high-end, expensive server or mainframe-level chips or chips specifically for military applications - nothing in between. Building a new chip fab plant is unbelievably expensive, especially when they're not going to be able to compete on cost with Taiwan or China. So I am expecting to see a new chip fab plant or two to show up in the US in the next few years, but they won't be making processors for computers or mobile phones.