Ah yeah totally fair. To each their own.

I did live in a city centre once a long time ago but I’d definitely be keeping the earplugs in all night if I were you now!

valuing xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion

Yeah fair enough. I’m not using them in a work environment. I’m happy if I get an extra 20 minutes of sleep in the morning when all the noise from the teenage grooming starts. Sometimes it’s 40.

It sounds ridiculous but it all adds up.

I grew up in the arse end of nowhere so any noise at all wakes me.

Those foam ones are really irritating after a while. Your local chemist may sell “mouldable silicone” ones that are cheap, better at sound isolation and way more comfortable. You basically just mash them into your ear and they form a perfect seal.

I use them every night.

Lad I know whose nickname is milk bottle.

Travelled back in time and the past is shite.

Well, we all knew they would be damning as fuck and they are damning as fuck.

How they goaded him into releasing those damning as fuck texts instead of just saying “sorry, we fucked up” is beyond me but here we find ourselves.

Feel like they’re gonna throw Hegseth under the bus now.

Are you assuming there were any messages prior to the group chat?

It’s not fuzzy at all. He was accidentally invited to a group chat. They thought he was someone else.

If you’ve ever used signal, the detail in the article would be more than enough to understand the sequence of events.

Yeah that part did stick with me too. For what it’s worth I’d say most Irish adults have been to the US at some point and had a great time so it’s all quite a bit of confusion and horror.

We know right well that there are lots of really good folks there too though and Michael does a great job of portraying that in the clip.

He’s a good lad. We’re all very fond of him.

He’s a super lad but you wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of him. This is one of my all time favourite bits of radio where he absolutely eviscerates someone against Obamacare at the time.

It’s from 2010 and 4 minutes long. Honestly couldn’t recommend enough that everyone who reads this gives it a listen.

Some light swearing at the end.

Look, I’ve been to the states a good 7 or 8 times and I’m really very fond of the place and the people generally. That includes the, hands down, best summer of my life on a college visa.

I will not be going back there until shit calms down. I just can’t gamble on the notion of spending weeks in a cold, overly bright shithole cell on the whim of anyone on the way through just for a holiday when I can spin over to any country in Europe and just get a smile and a “Welcome” from the border security on my way in.

It just wouldn’t be a rational choice.

edit: I just want to add in that the EU pumps an enormous amount of money on the Erasmus scheme. If you’re not in the know the idea is to get kids in college in one country to do a year of the course in another country in Europe. The only real goal of this is to make people realise that they’re just like everyone else in Europe so we never have an internal war again and it is (along with a few other bits) the best money the EU spends IMO.

Thanks for the response. That’s the thing - I feel like they’re big enough personalities on their own to get elected. AOC did it initially on a shoestring is my understanding and she’s well past the point of having voter recognition.

Genuine question to our American friends:

How come Bernie, AOC, Crockett etc. don’t start their own party? They can pledge to vote with the dems where it makes sense and they have enough political capital to continue getting elected. Seems like an ideal time to create a 3rd (actual alternative) party, no?

It might force the republicans to create an alt right and centre right party too which I feel would erode some of the alt right because from experience most Americans are not that alt right.

He’s not far off my mother’s age and she’s doing great so I have that to compare to but jaaayyysus… I would not want to be fighting as hard as he is at his age. Man deserves some rest.