Absolutely Anything Else

klsallee wrote:

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Not sure about what teachers get paid, my SIL makes over $80,000 a year as a grade school teacher but she has been working in Ca. for over 30 years

After 30 years she has clawed her way up to $80.000 a year. With multiple degrees. And experience. And actually contributes something real to the community, state, nation, society.

While an IT person who just makes it possible for people to put pig noses on other people in photos in some phone app, can make $80,000 their first year, as "a low paid" worker. 

Think my niece makes more then $80,000 year and she never spent a day in college.
She was mentored by a female boss in a office.
She took a break from work when she had her baby, her husband did something or other high up in IT, was making close to $200.000 a year, was sent to  West Palm Beach Fl.for his job and my niece got to play housewife for 7 years.
Then he got sick and died.
She had to get herself back into the workforce, she found out before he died he had raided their savings from over $300,000, No college fund money for their daughter.
She has a super pretty face( was going to model pro at 14 for Cole swimwear but didn't like the pressure or people) also has a strong A type personality and a loud  way about her but gets stuff done.
She was looking for a job and I heard her friend say to her they all had to get her a job that paid at least $100,000. Her friends all went to college and work in IT.
Well last I heard she was only making close to $80,000 but that was 4 years back. She however loves her job so much.
She works for a fortune 500 co. that handles IT.
She is the manager of both the SF office and the Las Vegas office. She does facilities management and has a crew of "boys" under her in SF which is a blast for her.
So great job, no college and a long break between working. Not too bad.
She travels all over the place, stays in the best hotels, rents really nice cars to get around where ever they send her plus about $300 a day for food.
Guess  in her case it really was who you know more then what you know.
She is very good though at her job, notices everything about the offices from what sort of tea and wines they have, what brand of TP they use and how clean the cleaning crew is.
She is fantastic at her job but makes it look like just a hobby.
I am really happy for her because things could of gotten ugly if she wasn't so hard strong.
Of course it could be true that attractive people get hired faster then those who aren't so attractive. Not sure, that's what I've heard.
My niece has a boyfriend now, she doesn't wish to marry again.
I suppose he must of gone to college because in a small N. Ca. city he is both the caption of the police dept and fire dept. He makes a cool $275,000 a year.
Big number to me, must be nice.

klsallee wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

Society as a whole, if it wants something, it has to pay for it. If it wants better roads, it has to pay for better roads. If it wants better education, it has to pay for better education.

......the teachers just a few years ago were gaining momentum with their complaints about the terrible working conditions and low pay, which the government was loosing ground on and public opinion was turning against the government.

Then the government found a scape goat source of distraction by pushing propaganda about the "immigrant threat".

The entire teacher protests and their public support crumbled in the collective psyche and was replaced with government manufactured fear of immigrants. Ergo, a lot of money went to build a fence along the border. Not to improve teachers salaries, working conditions or schools.

Actually Hungary might find the model in the UK something of a predictor of what happens.   

The native teachers get out of the profession and this actually increases immigration since the government has to recruit abroad and because local education system output has been nobbled by very high educational fees.  Teachers are not being replaced at the attrition rate.     

And it's the same for medics too - they have to recruit abroad as local produced medics desert to places overseas like Australia, NZ or Dubai where working conditions are better. Hence the government needs to import even more labour. 

Maybe Hungary will recruit from the HU folk in neighbouring countries.   It's not like they can recruit from the same base as English speaking countries. 

I know from some projects I worked on in a nameless country, there is sometimes a 5 year view on how the labour market will change, i.e.  in 5 years we need another 20,000 engineers, 5,000 dentists and so on.  Then they adjust the university  intake ratio - you want to be a dentist?  Competition is very high this year, would you like to be an engineer instead?   

Not maintaining the pool of reserve labour is foolish in the extreme.  So obviously in say, high cost education countries, people do what are considered easier degrees like "media studies", or "equine psychology". OK, it's a degree but it's not critical for national survival and it may not actually lead to a real job.

SimonTrew wrote:

......
But then this is all about "hypothecated" taxes, that you set aside taxes for individual causes. Never have done, never will do. They are always adding tax to my packet of cigarettes where does it go? It does not go into some kind of Smokers' Remuneration Fund, it goes into general taxation. Same with tax on cars, does it get spent on roads, not on your nelly. Governments are always against hypothecated taxes because it makes them accountable, which of course they do not want.

In some countries they do have special funds for taxes or better, revenue, raised.  For example, I have seen a country they put road taxes into a road fund.  One of the reasons they do this is to stop the government from redirecting the money to pet projects and to make sure that money is ring fenced with accountable controls (as was said).  Obviously the downside with a legit government is that they need to dip into it in case of emergencies - I saw one country where the provincial governor could take the entire budget for that province and use it for emergency relief if needed and do it directly without reference to central government. 

An interesting one would be the sovereign wealth funds of countries like Norway.

fluffy2560 wrote:

In some countries they do have special funds for taxes or better, revenue, raised.  For example, I have seen a country they put road taxes into a road fund.  One of the reasons they do this is to stop the government from redirecting the money to pet projects and to make sure that money is ring fenced with accountable controls (as was said).  Obviously the downside with a legit government is .....

A bigger downside is when there is a government who just passes a law to dismantle the accountability laws and dismisses any court judge who tries to say such laws are unconstitutional. That is, dismantling such checks and balances. Use to find such governments in mostly "Banana Republic" countries. But seeing it now in many Visegrád countries as well.

klsallee wrote:

.....Use to find such governments in mostly "Banana Republic" countries. But seeing it now in many Visegrád countries as well.

Shame really as banana republics at least have bananas.  I'm all for more bananas.

That's different to places that has people who are born bananas, who aspire to be bananas or have bananas'ness (?) thrust upon them. 

I remember being in Germany in the late 1980s, before the wall fell and in Bonn (where I was living at the time) and particularly Koln, there was a graffiti campaign probably for German unification which included spray painting bananas (in German only, sorry) on walls.  It was a symbol of change, radical thought and of revolution. 

If I was Hungarian, I'd definitely stand on a Bananas ticket.   It'd be Banana-22 all over again.

Day-O ,Mr Tallyman , tally me banana...
Mr. Harry Belafonte, now that was a real gent.
Met him once inside the old Brown Derby in Ca.

Check out on U tube, the Banana Dance done by the infamous one and only Josephine Baker.
One clip features a very posh speaking Englishmen narrating her dance. Almost too funny to get through, she's so down home and he is so snobby sounding, just crazy.
She was really something in her day.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Day-O ,Mr Tallyman , tally me banana...
Mr. Harry Belafonte, now that was a real gent.

Yes indeed, he's a very popular guy, good actor and could knock out a good tune too.  And unbelievably he's still alive at 91.  One of that unique generation along with Sidney Poitier (also still alive).

Mr. Poitier, used to just love his films.
I actually was enrolled in Marshall High School in Silverlake, Ca. for my last year of school.
They filmed his movie, "The Blackboard Jungle" there.
I quit about 2 weeks into going there.
That was one scary school!
Thought my life was worth more then that.
Moved in with my older sister my last year of school and was under the impression that I would be going to Hollywood High, when I found out her home just fell over into the other district I was really mad, never wanted to go to school with hard core Gangsta kids, back in 73, I used to wear vintage dresses, fur jackets from the 1940's and anything odd and strange.
Would of been cool at Hollywood High but at Marshall High, I was going to get a beat down sooner or later. I decided to make it never.
Finished my last bit of school a couple years later, I had all the credits needed to quit but not the hours. Took a couple of health courses and got my degree in a couple of weeks in summer school a few years later when I was 21. Had to finish up to be able to enroll in beauty college.
I used to always go to summer school every other year or so in Jr, high so by the time I was in HS I had all credits needed under the Ca. law in most courses. Could of taken basket weaving and got my degree by the time I was 17.
I was almost 6 and not 5 when I started school. My birthday falls in middle of Dec. so I could of been either the youngest child in my class or one of the oldest. My mom wanted me to stay with her as long as possible at home so she had me start late instead of early.
At one point in HS I had 2 study hall classes, didn't need to take anything more serious.
Study hall is pretty much just a place to read a book and take a nap. Just had to do the time.
I do seem to think most of schooling is a waste of time after grades 7 or 8, I would of loved to be enrolled in a alternative style school where they taught the arts only.
Not every kid  fits into the "system" I found almost all the studies to be so boring after jr. high school.
I should of stuck with my French lessons because I did well in those. Decided to try German, they messed me up by not giving me German until almost 2 months after the rest of the class started. Someone dropped out and the space was open.
You can't always get the classes you sign up for in US schools, if they are popular classes then it's hard to get in.
Being 2 months behind just was too much, I had to drop out of that German class after a few months, just couldn't catch up to the rest of the class.
Had the same dumb problem in Marshall high school.
Signed up for something or other and instead they put me into a course of all boys that were learning type setting like for a newspaper.
Bored to death doesn't even cover how I felt.Why they put me in that class I'll never know, no way was I about to touch all those dyes and such, just horrible the way public schools are run in the US.
Always felt the game was rigged against me in school,probably was, they don't want kids to break out of the mold and think on  their own.
Actually basket weaving would of been more exciting after all.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Mr. Poitier, used to just love his films.
I actually was enrolled in Marshall High School in Silverlake, Ca. for my last year of school.
They filmed his movie, "The Blackboard Jungle" there.
....

Strangely enough,  Sir Sidney Poitier (as he should be addressed perhaps),  was in a couple of kind of similar movies - To Sir, With Love (based in the UK) and a sequel To Sir, with Love 2 (based a  bit in the UK but set mainly in Chicago).  I remember seeing the first movie when I was a kid.

Yes, probably have seen everything he has been in over the years. My older sister used to drag me to the films with her, she loved off beat movies.
Saw every Woody Allen film when he was just starting out.
Lord of the Flies, the old UK version in black and white was one of her faves.
Any off beat horror film, so many nightmares from going to the movies with her...

fluffy2560 wrote:

Shame really as banana republics at least have bananas.  I'm all for more bananas.

You may get your wish. Because I think the world is going bananas...... 

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Shame really as banana republics at least have bananas.  I'm all for more bananas.

You may get your wish. Because I think the world is going bananas...... 

I'm wishing currently for more bananas but less banana republic behaviour with a bonkers blinged up El Presidente in charge.  That description applies to more than one country.

From what I've read, there could be a banana shortage due to the spread of Panama disease threatening the Cavendish banana - the current main cultivar.   Bananas are really a wonder(ful) fruit.

If anything happens to bananas, we'd have to have Tomato Republics or Rhubarb Republics instead.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Day-O ,Mr Tallyman , tally me banana...
Mr. Harry Belafonte, now that was a real gent.

Yes indeed, he's a very popular guy, good actor and could knock out a good tune too.  And unbelievably he's still alive at 91.  One of that unique generation along with Sidney Poitier (also still alive).

Well on the subject of movies...
My cousins Sidney was about 5 or 6 years old when he got a small , very small part in a movie with Don Knotts.
A real B movie from the 1960's.
The Reluctant Astronaut.
Such a dumb movie really, he is one of a small group of school children in the start of the movie, a cute little blonde boy standing sort of alone but with the group.
He was in many films starting as a baby.
Had a traumatic head injury about age 11 , end of his film parts after that.
Another real really bad movie was filmed in our town and many parts on our street in the early 1970's. "The Doberman Gang. "Just mindless movies really.
They filmed the old US tv show , "Little House on the Prairie" up in the hills of our town"
Also the little girl in the tv show , Land of the Lost" grew up in our town.
Used to see her shopping around with her mom.
Almost like we lived in the, "Land of the B movies"

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.....Just mindless movies really.
They filmed the old US tv show , "Little House on the Prairie" up in the hills of our town"
Also the little girl in the tv show , Land of the Lost" grew up in our town.
Used to see her shopping around with her mom.
Almost like we lived in the, "Land of the B movies"

Most of them are mindless these days. 

I tend to fidget now in movies (my hip and back playing up these days) so I don't care for sitting down for extended periods before it starts aching. Last movie - at the cinema - I saw was The Last Jedi.  It was OK but not exceptional.   Whenever I look at the movie listings, I tend to think, "meh....".

I'm quite keen on TV shows in box sets as they can be seen in chunks - get a 40-60 minute section, do something else and then take it up again later.  Not into binge watching currently.   My oldest HU sprog now likes box sets. We've started watching them together.  It's a bit of  a bonding opportunity which I think we don't get at the movie experience.  We can chat about the characters and what might happen and so on.

I enjoy hour long series shows, mostly enjoy true life tales and documentaries.
Films based on real events are great too.
Not so much into fantasy these days, although I do enjoy the really "campy" shows like The Flash or Gotham too darn bad about House of Cards, just when they got me hooked it went bust.
Used to watch allot of the Japanese anime shows with my son when he was younger. Voltron  was the name of one show.
Also watched tons of ABBA video's when he was into ABBA so much.
We even got tickets to see Mama Mia in Vegas together, did the old sing alone etc. It was fun although not something i would normally find fun.
My niece just got back from taking her 12 year old girl to some big anime convention in LA. My great-niece was all dressed up in a nice Laura Croft outfit Growing up so fast, think she is just about as tall I am am now!

Weather finally getting back to summer, off to the water hopefully tomorrow.
Had allot of worry yesterday thinking of my son's in-laws in Fukuoka, Japan. All that flooding.
He called to chat and he and his wife didn't even know about the floods and landslides .
Her parents have a "Ohana" style house, a large split house two homes built into one which her sister and her family live in and the parents the other half of the house.
They have a large back yard where they do BBQ's but there is also a large flood channel behind their property.
No news yet on if their home was flooded or not.
My DIL is so cool in that off beat Japanese way, doesn't stress about anything , so calm all the time.
2 years ago when we were visiting them she told me days after she got the news about her cousin. They were very close and grew up together , played together etc.
Well her cousin had just passed away at age 40 from cancer , they had to leave the house about 10 days before she passed because some flood had hit their home and it was gone. She left her 3 year old child with her ill husband when she passed.
I would of been freaking out crying but no, she was cool, calm and collected even when she finally told me these events days after she got the news.
Either emotionally very distant or extremely cool headed.
No wonder they were one tough enemy in the war, nothing fazes them much.

fluffy2560 wrote:

spread of Panama disease threatening the Cavendish banana - the current main cultivar.

An example of the perils of having no diversity in modern monoculture farming.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Tomato Republics or Rhubarb Republics

I actually really like tomatoes. And unlike bananas, there are still over 10,000 cultivars to select from.

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

spread of Panama disease threatening the Cavendish banana - the current main cultivar.

An example of the perils of having no diversity in modern monoculture farming.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Tomato Republics or Rhubarb Republics

I actually really like tomatoes. And unlike bananas, there are still over 10,000 cultivars to select from.

Rhubarb is quite nice too.   Used to have rhubarb crumble when I was a kid. Sadly  no longer an option open to me as too sugary.  I tried growing rhubarb in the garden but I couldn't get it to take.  Tried several times.  My MIL has some and hers is strong but it doesn't like being transplanted.

I believe the Cavendish bananas are all cloned and all the other plants around the world are clones from the original in Kew gardens, London.  I understand there has been some progress in genetic engineering and cross breeding with wild bananas to introduce some resistance to panama disease. 

Tomatoes are good too.  I understand the potato and tomato are closely related and it's possible to graft tomato stems on to potato plants and get production top and bottom.  Never tried it.

Tomatoes are night shade foods such as eggplant.
Not the best sorts of things to eat if you have joint pain.
Potatoes are also night shade foods, have stopped eating them, only once in awhile because they are nice and tasty.
I have almost given up on doctors they can't fix anything other then repairing broken bones or a traumatic injury.
I know allot of foods are GMO even so called organic foods often have depleted  minerals from over used soil.
I think many illnesses can be treated with proper eating, exercise and reducing stress, need to shut off the tv sets sometimes and just go out and take a walk in nature.
Most people are low on minerals that leads to all sorts of health problems.
It's best to get all your minerals and vitamins from fresh foods but it's harder and harder to find a good source of food that hasn't been grown in a lab or under lights.

I believe the originator of this forum, in another forum, politely suggested my and our "slightly off topic" conversation should "go elsewhere". Farbeit for me to suggest that this forum's orignator would like to direct traffic to his own forum in some kind of narcissistic backpatting. but welcome back fluffy! I hope you had a good holiday.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Actually Hungary might find the model in the UK something of a predictor of what happens. .

I think that is exactly what VO has been doing for years. He is Thatcher incarnate. He looks at the UK and goes hmm, I could do that. Immigration argument, I could do that. Cut down on properly funded education, I could do that. Hasn't got around to public transport yet but I bet he is looking. What, you actally want a train or bus to your low-paid job at stupid o'clock in the morning? Fat chance. Let's cut down all the public sector and the books balance... for now. As Kinnock put it and I am not going to quote verbatim, "I warn you if you vote conservative tomorrow, I warn you never to be ill. I warn you never to be poor. And I warn you never to grow old". And yet it was voted.

Sometimes I sit and weep at how selfish we have become as a society, that even if one wants to contribute back one cannot. If I want to help children to learn to read, voluntarily, I cannot, because I have to get through so many checks that I am not a paedophile (as if those checks would not be easily passed by a paeodophile) that I cannot volunteer something I would readily do - something my mother did - to teach children just their ABC. If they sat on my knee while I was going through a story book with them one-to-one some idiot would come along from the authorities and call me a paedophile. I have done it with my nieces and nephews but there is no way I can do it in a school now, I cannot volunteer, I would be branded a paedophile just because I happen to be a man.

I volunteered to do some work at a night school, i forget what subject it was in but something I knew a lot about, this was in the UK, they were looking for volunteers. I volunteered. We need to put you through a CRB check, a Criminal Records Bureau Check to make sure you are not a criminal. F- you. i just told them actually I have a long criminal record and so therefore I cannot work for you. I do not think they realised I was being ironic. No private company does a Criminal Records Bureau Check, or at least outside very strict bounds they are not allowed to. So bang goes another chance of my volunteering. I do actually have one criminal offence from the Crown Court from ten years ago, not one I am at all proud of, but I paid my price seven years ago and have not done anything criminal since then and that was the only one I ever did, it was a stupid mistake and I paid the price for it. I should not have to continue to pay the price for it, ten years later,. that I cannot volunteer for anything that requires a CRB check (the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 means should be wipeoff the record but, these days, it is not, regardless of what the law says, you try taking that upw it your local Chief Constable and see how far you get in this Information Age).

I support the Royal British Legion every year and ran the poppy appeal for several years in my local village. At no time did the RBL once ask me to do a CRB check or question when I was knocking on doors in the dark november evenings whether as the occupants opened the door  I might see a child in the hallway in his pyjamas. It is absolutely ridiculous.

and you wonder why people don't volunteer, or at least, don't appear to volunteer. I teach English to the girl next door she is seven she is just starting,we are just doing first words. Her parents are more than happy for me to do it. But if the authorities got wind of it they would probably tell me no you have to be supervised etc.

SimonTrew wrote:

....  I might see a child in the hallway in his pyjamas. It is absolutely ridiculous.

and you wonder why people don't volunteer, or at least, don't appear to volunteer. I teach English to the girl next door she is seven she is just starting,we are just doing first words. Her parents are more than happy for me to do it. But if the authorities got wind of it they would probably tell me no you have to be supervised etc.

I think in Hungary no-one cares.

I was in an English swimming pool recently and there was a sign up - no photography.  Why?  No idea but I can guess.  UK is very silly with this stuff.

As for babies, there's going to be giant inflatable one over the UK Houses of Parliament soon. And all I can say is hahahahahaha.

SimonTrew wrote:

I believe the originator of this forum, in another forum, politely suggested my and our "slightly off topic" conversation should "go elsewhere". Farbeit for me to suggest that this forum's orignator would like to direct traffic to his own forum in some kind of narcissistic backpatting. but welcome back fluffy! I hope you had a good holiday.

I kind of like the word, Farbeit.  Maybe Germglish for working at a distance. 

I don't claim to moderate these forums.   But Anything Else is not really a forum - it's more a Topic or a Conversation like we'd have in a pub.  A dumping ground for obscure streams of consciousness and human perceptions past and present.  Hmmmmmm....  Ok, that's overdoing it.

But in any case, I was pre-empting the moderators so that the conversation (or is it really banter?) - which I found interesting - could possibly continue elsewhere.  But such is the meandering thoughts in these topics, who knows where it's going.

I think no-one knew I was actually on holiday as I was still hanging about in these forums even though I was all around Europe. That's a bit sad. But I still had time to mess about with the family like going swimming, stay in hotels/apartments, eat in pubs, eating chips with mayo, drink beer in old town squares, ride on rollercoasters, sit on the beach and answer my work related e-mails. 

On balance, job done!

fluffy2560 wrote:

I was in an English swimming pool recently and there was a sign up - no photography.  Why?  No idea but I can guess.  UK is very silly with this stuff.

As for babies, there's going to be giant inflatable one over the UK Houses of Parliament soon. And all I can say is hahahahahaha.

They seem always to have those signs up, I remember those from when I was a child. Couldn't understand them then and can't understand them now. No diving (this was an olympic-sized swimming pool with a three storey diving board they built in Stevenage, 12'6 at the deep end, and they put up a sign saying "no diving", what are we supposed to do, abseil?) and various other restrictions that made no sense.

They do the same with dodgem cars there is always a sign saying "no bumping". Now I suppose technically the idea is to dodge 'em but surely half the fun is to bump into people... I think the English have this rather odd habit of putting up signs for the simple act of denying people any fun. You can guarantee that in the middle of a playing field there will be a sign saying "no ball games". I have yet to see a sign in an alley that says "no murdering after dark" but it would not in the least surprise me.

Yes the baby is a good one, Khan got a good one there saying people are allowed to protest... I think the pitch is queered there in two ways, first that it went onto the television before being just a surprise, which I think would have had more effect, and second that Khan the Mayor of London kinda said it would have been out of the way before the person in question arrived. Which rather defeats the point. The point of a public protest is to be disruptive. It is rather like saing, which they do, "this strike will lose the country seventeenbillion worker hours". But of course. you are allowed to strike providing it is totally ineffective. The whole point of a strike is to be disruptive.

SimonTrew wrote:

....

Yes the baby is a good one, Khan got a good one there saying people are allowed to protest... I think the pitch is queered there in two ways, first that it went onto the television before being just a surprise, which I think would have had more effect, and second that Khan the Mayor of London kinda said it would have been out of the way before the person in question arrived. Which rather defeats the point. The point of a public protest is to be disruptive. It is rather like saing, which they do, "this strike will lose the country seventeenbillion worker hours". But of course. you are allowed to strike providing it is totally ineffective. The whole point of a strike is to be disruptive.

Yes, shame it's not up over Windsor, Chequers and other locations. 

I still don't know if Trump is a genius or a complete idiot.  He's certainly a manipulator.   I don't think any one is used to him Tweeting his way around the world, annoying just about everyone.  At least the bloke cannot be elected more than* twice and let's all be thankful for that.  I hope that also it guarantees the definite loon Mike "quite a bit short of a pound" Pence isn't going to be in charge over there.

4% GDP for defence spending seems quite reasonable to me but it sounds to me like a negotiating position.  I reckon he's aiming for 2.5-3% - more spending anyway.    I expect he thinks that most of that % will be spent on US produced arms further boosting his America First thing.  Possibly it's a trade mission rather than a defence mission. 

If only Europe had the cohesiveness to fight - I have my doubts that  the EU could fight its way out of a paper bag.  It's a shame really because they'd never get agreement to involve themselves in any way except for say Syria or Crimea.  If Putin invades the Baltics, I expect most of the EU (Visegrad especially) except Poland, Finland, Sweden, maybe Germany would just go "meh....".

One upside (for some) of Trump might be an aid bonanza on rebuilding Syria.  Assad has nearly won and Trump being unpredictable could probably go and meet him in say, Cyprus.  China, Russia and maybe the EU would all want a slice of that.  Iran would of course be excluded as would Turkey.  Just musing.

* corrected my mistyping

fluffy2560 wrote:

I still don't know if Trump is a genius or a complete idiot.  He's certainly a manipulator.   I don't think any one is used to him Tweeting his way around the world, annoying just about everyone.  At least the bloke cannot be elected twice

He can be elected twice. Roosevelt was elected four times, and then they brought in the somethingorother act and the eleventeenth amendment to the constitutiion to limit presidents to two terms. He can certainly be elected a second time, but not a third time. It is  quite common in modern US politics for presidents to get elected for a second term.

fluffy2560 wrote:

One upside (for some) of Trump might be an aid bonanza on rebuilding Syria.  Assad has nearly won and Trump being unpredictable could probably go and meet him in say, Cyprus.  China, Russia and maybe the EU would all want a slice of that.  Iran would of course be excluded as would Turkey.  Just musing.

I doubt it. China has made great inroads into "Africa" providing "Aid" and sorry for the quotes but proviing billion-dollar loans for the poorer countries in Africa and building iinrastructure. On the assumption that Assad wins, my bet would be that China would come in and Trump would not know where to start. He can't exactly bomb the rebuilding again can  he. It will be the usual rabble of UN peacekeeping forces, i.e. Europe, while China puts in all the money to expand its empire a little further north. Assad would obviously be a puppet leader of the China government on this premiss.

The one to watch out for there is Egypt. THey have managed to kick out the Russians, the British, the Syrians, the Israelis, in the last fifty years. Egypt has a lot of a bit dusty but quite capable British weaponry out in the deserts and will protect its territory. Egypt hasn't said anything yet but when it puts it foot down on the international stage, it will be the minor player but will make its presence known. Strangely enough on the semifinal there was an ad "invest in egypt" which I had never seen before. It wasn1t a scrolling one or at least I did not see it scroll and did not see any Arabic but then all the ads seem to be in Latin alphabet except one which seems a mix of Devanagaru, Kanji and Roman which i could not make out entirely. Presumably "Invest in Egypt" is some kind of government scheme. Theő people who usually invest in egypt are defence companies.

fluffy2560 wrote:

One upside (for some) of Trump might be an aid bonanza on rebuilding Syria.  Assad has nearly won and Trump being unpredictable could probably go and meet him in say, Cyprus.  China, Russia and maybe the EU would all want a slice of that.  Iran would of course be excluded as would Turkey.  Just musing.

Presumab ly landing at what I believe is now called RAF Cyprus at Nicosia. Turkey is part of NATO and I worked with USAF Turkey actually, there is quite a strong presence there, so it is perfectly possible to bomb them from there but the fact is they haven't. Iran would be an interesting one, they have lots of British stuff, I can't quite see why they would bother except for the persian gulf but then you have oh that is obvious.... you have SAUDI ARABIA in the way. It all depends on what Saudi Arabia does. And Saudi Arabia has done pretty much nothing so far, i.e. I imagine deliberate quietism.


Gosh if I make this less  technical I could submit it as an article for Jane's Defence Weekly

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

I still don't know if Trump is a genius or a complete idiot.  He's certainly a manipulator.   I don't think any one is used to him Tweeting his way around the world, annoying just about everyone.  At least the bloke cannot be elected twice

He can be elected twice. Roosevelt was elected four times, and then they brought in the somethingorother act and the eleventeenth amendment to the constitutiion to limit presidents to two terms. He can certainly be elected a second time, but not a third time. It is  quite common in modern US politics for presidents to get elected for a second term.

Yeah,  I know, I mistyped it in the shock of England's defeat.  I meant more than twice. Corrected.

fluffy2560 wrote:

[Yeah,  I know, I mistyped it in the shock of England's defeat.

oh I keep "England loses again" permanently set up in type.

I think it was no shock at all. England had a good chance.- what happens generally is that they sack the manager but Southgate brought in a very young team and really was kinda training them befor the next one. To sack the manager would be the worst thing. I was kinda backing croatia as a back-bet I got 27.50 out of a British fiver at the bookies (my missus turning into a bookie's runner apparently this evening) so I am 22.50 to the good I have that consolation prize. Very much a consolation prize.

If they try to sack southgate which I imagine they will do then no fucking chance. He took a young team, the youngest in the competition if you average the ages. They have had and I forget who said it, probably he himself, you get an experience and you will remember this for the rest of your life.

It only occured to me now because of its absence, no racism at the world cup as far as I can tell. Supporting your own country obviously but no racism, that is a good thing. Never heard any chants of racism and I know a lot of languages. Obviously nationalistic songs, it is nations playing, but no racism. That is a bloody good thing, I think.

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

One upside (for some) of Trump might be an aid bonanza on rebuilding Syria.  Assad has nearly won and Trump being unpredictable could probably go and meet him in say, Cyprus.  China, Russia and maybe the EU would all want a slice of that.  Iran would of course be excluded as would Turkey.  Just musing.

I doubt it. China has made great inroads into "Africa" providing "Aid" and sorry for the quotes but proviing billion-dollar loans for the poorer countries in Africa and building iinrastructure. On the assumption that Assad wins, my bet would be that China would come in and Trump would not know where to start. He can't exactly bomb the rebuilding again can  he. It will be the usual rabble of UN peacekeeping forces, i.e. Europe, while China puts in all the money to expand its empire a little further north. Assad would obviously be a puppet leader of the China government on this premiss.

The one to watch out for there is Egypt. THey have managed to kick out the Russians, the British, the Syrians, the Israelis, in the last fifty years. Egypt has a lot of a bit dusty but quite capable British weaponry out in the deserts and will protect its territory. Egypt hasn't said anything yet but when it puts it foot down on the international stage, it will be the minor player but will make its presence known. Strangely enough on the semifinal there was an ad "invest in egypt" which I had never seen before. It wasn1t a scrolling one or at least I did not see it scroll and did not see any Arabic but then all the ads seem to be in Latin alphabet except one which seems a mix of Devanagaru, Kanji and Roman which i could not make out entirely. Presumably "Invest in Egypt" is some kind of government scheme. Theő people who usually invest in egypt are defence companies.

China was already in Syria when I was there - all those funny buses and cars like Great Wall and Long King etc. And their telecoms was Huawei.  China doesn't care what Trump thinks about anything and he's prepared to let them get away with all sorts for some reason.

China is a strange one in Africa. They aren't exactly integrated by any means. They bring everything from China for building work - even down to the stones and rock.  Locals hardly get a look in. They don't get labouring jobs, it's all Chinese.  Quite a lot of resentment involved.  They could be booted out of Africa at any time. I could see that happening in quite a few places.  Anyway, the way it works for the Chinese is that they give a soft loan which countries take and end up indebted and it's a double blow as the soft loan must be spent on Chinese goods.   

Sometimes being involved in places like Syria is not about money, it's about projecting power.  Even though Syria is rather inconsequential - there's almost no oil there - it is strategically placed and Russia's foothold on the Med.  So, involvement would be a counter to that.    But a rebuilding programme would encourage returnees and reduce the refugee crisis pressure.   Couple that with destabilisation of Iran in the wake of the nuclear deal rejection,  the establishment of a Kurdish state, wobbling in Saudi, war in Yemen and well, who knows where that's all going. 

Egypt is a bit player and has not much to offer other than pyramids, sand and the canal.   Don't see any significance much there.  Only interest in that area is South Sudan with its oil fields and possibly Ethiopia/Eritrea peace deal.  Every  country and its dog have a foothold in Djibouti.

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

[Yeah,  I know, I mistyped it in the shock of England's defeat.

oh I keep "England loses again" permanently set up in type.

I think it was no shock at all.

I was trying to be a bit ironic with the "shock" thing.    I have developing a habit of missing words out these days.  So if I miss one out, it could be I intended to say the opposite or something quite different.   That's what red wine, football, defeat and late nights do for you. 

Anyway, more to the point, it was all going so nicely and then when Croatia scored to equalise, it was like they all got new batteries and zipping around like Duracell bunnies. And England seem to slip into a coma and with that 2nd goal, I might as well have turned the TV off. I could see defeat written all over them.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Anyway, more to the point, it was all going so nicely and then when Croatia scored to equalise, it was like they all got new batteries and zipping around like Duracell bunnies. And England seem to slip into a coma and with that 2nd goal, I might as well have turned the TV off. I could see defeat written all over them.

Well I did have to turn the TV off cos the missus called me when it went into extra time. f- that I can watch asingle football match.

More importantly, she went to the betting shop for a fun fiver bet but they wouldn1t let her put the bet on cos she hadn't ID- Nobody in the UK is required to carry ID.

To ask for it at the bookies is a new one on me, it was only a fiver cash and she is going to get it back in sterling so it is not going to be money laundering. Then payback would bave been 27.50 on a fiver as a consolation bet, but that is not important, the bookmaker is entitled to refuse a bet for any reason but what is this business about providing ID? You get the betting slip, that is your proof of purchase and actually is a negotiable instrument in that you can give or sell it to someone else if you want. So what the f- is this business in asking for ID?

Belive me. my missus does not look 18. She looks about 40, because she is. I love her natural look.

She is not going to be money laundering cos, er, you are going to pay her out in the same currency she just gave you.

I have never in my life known a bookie to ask for ID so I have no idea what that is on about.

I am not worried about the bett, I am worried about a company which wishes to trade (as a licenced bookmaker) but who has no business to know my missus' personal identity.

SimonTrew wrote:

....

More importantly, she went to the betting shop for a fun fiver bet but they wouldn1t let her put the bet on cos she hadn't ID- Nobody in the UK is required to carry ID.
...

I am not worried about the bett, I am worried about a company which wishes to trade (as a licenced bookmaker) but who has no business to know my missus' personal identity.

I have an old £10 note I had to exchange. Grandma gave it to one of the kids and it was in a biscuit tin. If you exchange less than £1000 cash you can just post it to the Bank of England and they'll deposit it in your bank account.  They don't need any ID for that.   

So a bookies wanting ID is some fanciful BS invented by a jobsworth at their HQ.  Unfortunately it's all panic stations on anything cash wise now in any business there. 

Try paying for stuff in cash in the UK these days, almost impossible to do anything at a business over about a K in cash.  I remember buying cars with bundles of £50 notes.  Not any more, all transfers, cards and sometimes cheques.  Cash is no longer king.

fluffy2560 wrote:

[
I have an old £10 note I had to exchange. Grandma gave it to one of the kids and it was in a biscuit tin. If you exchange less than £1000 cash you can just post it to the Bank of England and they'll deposit it in your bank account.  They don't need any ID for that

You do not have to do that. You can go to any retail bank and they will take in the old tenner and give you a new one. Believe me, my missus was bank clerk rising to bank manager in the UK for seven years in a well known retail bank and used to do that every day, would say oh a woman came in with a white fiver today.

Any retail bank will take your tenner in and give you a new tenner and send it into the bank of england for it you and put it against their book. You do not have to make a personal trip to the Bank of England with a negotiable cow.

All notes are indefinitely irredeemable at the Bank of England because it is the Governor and the Company of the Bank of England who issues them. But in practice, any retail bank will exchange it without a blink of an eye.

I think we are struggling towards what we are both saying. Cash is anonymous and that is the whole point. In this day and age I do not want every purchase i make being tracked. I pay my taxes, I am an honest man, I value my privacy, I do not want VISA or MasterCard or whateer knowing what I spend my money on which is whz I rarely use a card, i take cash from the machine and pay cash. Cash is by its nature untraceable and I do not want to be traced. I would like to go out in the evening without CCTV or pay in cash or whatever, my life is no business of anyone else's providing I stick within the law of the land. Cash is kinda our last  liberty that no fucking government or facebook or cambrige analytics can work out where I spend it.

I have an ancient mobile phone that does not have internet or gps or anything on it. I worked on the other side you can usually triangulate off of three aerials where that mobile phone is within about five metres or so, so it is quite easy to track everyone's mobile phone (we used to just pick a number at random and follow them for testing pirposes without knowing who they were etc).

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Always deal in cash.

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

I have an old £10 note I had to exchange. Grandma gave it to one of the kids and it was in a biscuit tin. If you exchange less than £1000 cash you can just post it to the Bank of England and they'll deposit it in your bank account.  They don't need any ID for that

You do not have to do that. You can go to any retail bank and they will take in the old tenner and give you a new one. Believe me, my missus was bank clerk rising to bank manager in the UK for seven years in a well known retail bank and used to do that every day, would say oh a woman came in with a white fiver today.

Any retail bank will take your tenner in and give you a new tenner and send it into the bank of england for it you and put it against their book. You do not have to make a personal trip to the Bank of England with a negotiable cow.

All notes are indefinitely redeemable at the Bank of England because it is the Governor and the Company of the Bank of England who issues them. But in practice, any retail bank will exchange it without a blink of an eye.

I checked and no, it seems it's too late at the retail bank right now. I think that was possible for the £10 note up until the end of March 2018.  The only place I might have got lucky was the Post Office.

But I'm here, with the note, not there, so I had to post it to the Bank of England.  As it's not legal tender and just a bit of paper, and only the BoE would exchange it, it was the expedient solution to send it by post and have them transfer to me £10.

I was assuming the case was hypothetical, to be honest, I don1t eally understand why a fluffiette would have a ten pound note in the first place.

Yes, it is not legal tender and indeed hardly anything is legal tender actually, in the sense that it cannot lawfully be refused, there is not really anything that is legal tender. The Bank of England has a nice little museum or used to at the front. You could have just gone to the bureau de change and exchanged it, they do not keep enormous lists of when and what was legal tender. I have had a fiver refused in Manchester cos it was out of date (they change the issue so frequently now) and just went to Barclays Bank and they changed it without problem even though it was no longer legal tender and past the official dates that the bank said they would change it. My point is that that they set these dates to get the notes out of circulation as quick as possible, but in practice you can go in years later and they will still actually change it, almost without asking if you pay in with old notes they just put them aside and they go, via a money handling centre, to the bank of england. Retail banks change out old currency for new every day of the week it is no big deal. It is not my fault you are not near a branch of a retail bank in England or Wales.

Technically legal tender means that if you tender (offer) it and it is refused, then you are not obliged to settle the debt in any other way, you are exonerated from the debt. Banknotes are not legal tender, almost nothing is legal tender. The concept is one of those myths, really, people talk about legal tender when really nothing is. If I offer you a tenner and you say no, I don1t want that tenner, give me ten pounds some other way, I cannot turn round to yxou and say aha' but it is legal tender so now I owe you nothing because you refused it. There is really no such thing as legal tender in English law.

Coins in surprisingly small quantites cease to be legal tender. A bag of 2p pieces to make up a pound is not legal tender, yet the banks still accept it, the Bank of England says what quantities of coins are legal tender, so almost any bagful of 1p and 2p pieces is not legal tender, yet retail banks accept them every day. I think you are kinda on the path of arguing that a bank would refuse a properly bagged poundsworth of tuppenny bits because it is not legal tender. Of course they bloody don't.

SimonTrew wrote:

I was assuming the case was hypothetical, to be honest, I don1t eally understand why a fluffiette would have a ten pound note in the first place.
.... It is not my fault you are not near a branch of a retail bank in England or Wales.

As I said it was a present from UK Grandma who doesn't have Euros or Forints but does have Pounds.   

Aforementioned Fluffyette put it in a tin with other treasures and secreted it away.   

Then when we went there, it came along but we couldn't use it.  Then we forgot about it and subsequently it came to light again. 

Hence my involvement with swapping it with the BoE.

SimonTrew wrote:

..... Banknotes are not legal tender, almost nothing is legal tender. ....

BoE itself uses the phrase legal tender when referring to withdrawn notes.

As far as I remember there's a limit on coin handling when presenting coins at a UK bank but I forget how much it is.  Anyways, a bit irrelevant to Hungary.

I like the Austrian system myself.  They have self service coin counting machines in some bank branches. You stick in your bank card, put the coins in a hopper and they sort and count them automatically. Then the amount is credited on your account.  it's fast and really very easy.   Wouldn't be a bad idea here in HU as we tend to have  piles of useless small coins building up here. 

I don't think anything below 10 or 20 Ft is useful for machines now as it's almost valueless. Even a couple of years ago, the car jet wash used to take 50Ft but now will only take 100 or 200 Ft coins.