PolitiKey

@Cruizerdave1 @langofmind @letsgetfree13 Here’s Darth Maul’s goals Palpatine wants to turn the senate into a dictatorship by using a crisis to make himself supreme chancellor. This is step 1 in a long game to make himself supreme emperor. Maul is his top guy got making it happen

@langofmind @letsgetfree13 Decepticons are generally trying to procure energy to fuel their expansionist empire, while the Autobots are trying to stop them from enslaving others. It’s actually pretty well defined.

Everyone is giving the wrong reasons for why this sucks. It sucks because Darth Maul is a non-character. He's a guy with horns who has no interior goals or desires. Why is he here? Why are they fighting? None of this matters, and it's not about anything

@langofmind What are the Balrog’s interior goals or desires? Or the Uruk-Hai orc Aragorn fights at end of fellowship? Sometimes “key henchmen” villains exist to provide cool fight scenes. Maul did that great. He’s not the key villain of TPM - Palpatine is

While covering the latest Israeli settler attack in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers assaulted my photojournalist @cyrilthps and detained my team. But our 2-hour detention revealed a lot about the motives of these Israeli soldiers: acting in service of the settler movement. W/ @AbeerSalmanCNN

@DamonLinker People over 40: “The phantom menace is the worst film ever” People under 40: “😍 Now this is podracing”

It doesn't just suck. The Phantom Menace has my vote for the worst Hollywood blockbuster ever made. It's an atrocious film with incoherent plotting and terrible acting. Plus the character of Jar-Jar Binks, King of Cringe, which makes several scenes unwatchably embarrassing.

@josephkazUK @haringeycouncil Land value tax would also solve this. High demand locations should pay high enough land value tax to make shoddy businesses unsustainable

This is Seven Sisters Road in @haringeycouncil. It's an utter embarrassment that we have allowed our high streets to deteriorate to this point. This parade of shops could be a landmark destination, but instead it's neglected and forgotten. I'm all for liberalising planning BUT design codes have a place, and this is a great example. No satellite dishes, no PVC, no estate agent signs, no white paint. Just consistent signage, colours and high-quality heritage shopfronts. @createstreets

@Shuttlecock Phantom menace is still the best Star Wars film since the OG trilogy 👆

The thing is, a whole generation didn’t hate the Star Wars prequels. I was 18 when Phantom Menace came out, saw it opening night with a few friends from student res, and then rewatched it at least three or four times in the theatre over the next month or so. Pretty much everyone saw this movie (and EpII & III). Guys and girls. Nerds and casuals. Many went multiple times (the box office numbers prove this). The merch sold through the roof, every magazine featured cover stories with the cast, most casual fans thought Jar Jar was funny while the Star Wars nerds were obsessed with the tech behind the character. Girls loved Padme’s fashion while straight guys loved Portman. The online fandom was hyperactive with fan theories, fan art, etc with a very clear even split between the male/female demos. Fan and general public reaction was insanely positive. This particular scene became ICONIC. 98% of the negativity came from the professional film critics. TPM wasn’t perfect by any means but the media definitely tried to push the message that it was a disaster, Jake Lloyd sucked, and that Jar Jar was offensive and racist. This weird gaslighting that it was the fans who were negative and toxic is just current media trying to do damage control for just how negative they were at the time.

@ramonagusta @MichaelAArouet You’re wrong. The actual chart that matters is this one.

@MichaelAArouet It's easy to answer... millions of low-grade/no-grade immigrants are killing the GDP per head.

Holy smoke. If I were a British citizen, I would start asking some really tough questions.

We have the culture we deserve. The new Harry Potter will be a ratings success. HBO knows this. It’ll clear ten million viewers a week easily. Will it be millennials now comfortably in the homes they own with their ten year olds watching?? No, no it won’t. It will be all of us aging diner goth late 80s babies eating our nostalgia slop like good little npc’s.

@YadlinAmos @jimsciutto If Israel wants to be the Singapore or Switzerland of the region, it needs to stop acting like the most aggressive country in the region.

@YadlinAmos @jimsciutto Israel’s long term survival rests on it finding a concept of security that doesn’t require it to constantly aggressively downgrade the military capabilities of its (far larger) neighbours. That is not a natural nor sustainable state of affairs.

Israel is much safer today than it was before the war: Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities were rolled back by years, and for the coming years they no longer pose an existential threat to Israel. If the 15 points that were leaked do in fact become the plan for ending the war, then on the nuclear issue, on the proxies, and also on the ballistic missiles, we are in a very good place. But we are not there yet: it is still unclear whether Iran will accept these terms - or whether there is a real partner for negotiations on their behalf. The war should not end without ensuring that Iran can no longer use the Strait of Hormuz as a tool to hold the Gulf states hostage and threaten the global economy. If regime change ever comes, it will not come from American or Israeli boots on the ground, but from the brave people of Iran. It was a pleasure to join my friend @jimsciutto on @CNN yesterday. Watch the full interview for my thoughts on the diplomatic track and the possible path forward 👇🏼 video.snapstream.net/Play/6CP7sMcKm…

@PompeyTim69 @carolecadwalla That one isn’t in the last 12 months though

@PolitiKeyUK @carolecadwalla This one is.. 🤷‍♂️ x.com/iainoverton/st…

So, the propaganda puff piece that Palantir fed the Observer…isn’t even true?? Wtaf?

@FraserNelson Interesting - isn’t this exactly the kind on indirect taxation conservatives are in favour of though? E.g: places like the UAE raises a lot of revenue through exactly these sorts of taxes.

Once, Rachel Reeves dismissed fears that her tax rises would have quite a big impact on jobs. Hope these warnings are taken more seriously in HM Treasury now.

@GrapplingV @caracus2k @afneil If the number most commonly estimated by economists (6-8%) is correct - would you also say that would be justified / a small price to pay?

@PolitiKeyUK @caracus2k @afneil I’ll stick a number on it…1%. Small price to pay for getting rid of that awful commission. Now the uk need to grow a pair when dealing with them. Oh and that 1%, that will be mitigated for in the next 5 years through trade deals with the row. Have a nice day 😁

Just add 8% to current UK GDP to make up the Brexit ‘shortfall’, then compare our GDP growth to other major European and G7 economies — and it quickly becomes apparent it’s anything but credible!!

@caracus2k @afneil If you had to put a number on it?

@PolitiKeyUK @afneil As I have already alluded to on another post... At a level of impact so low that if you were looking at the GDP data for the past couple of decades, but didn't know about Brexit for some reason (but did know about other world events) that you would not think anything was amiss

@caracus2k @afneil What is your estimate of effect Brexit has had on UK GDP? Do you at least accept that it was a significant change to our economy, trade rules and immigration laws - so it should definitely have *a* effect.

@caracus2k @afneil Well that certainly wasn’t an answer to my question 🤔

@caracus2k @afneil It seems like you’re determined to ignore the evidence. Are you denying Brexit has had an effect on business investment or trade?

@PolitiKeyUK @afneil I don't care what 'Economic institutions' claim because they have a terrible record (just look at the claims made in Osborne's pre brexit vote economic 'analysis' that predicted a mere vote to leave the EU would cause economic catastrophe) The evidence doesn't support the claims