Budget driven rather than appeasement driven, since the racists aren't going to distinguish between immigrants with ILR and immigrants without, even though it's being presented as tough on immigration.

This is really appalling, and the only way I can make sense of it is that it's a desperate measure to keep people here and working and contributing longer without giving them recourse to public funds.

And how much money will it waste?

Steve Witherden (MP for Montgomeryshire & Glyndŵr) gave a speech at our counter demo in Newtown yesterday and spoke well and forcefully.

Same here. Much too Bukowski for me.

An additional factor for some tech founders apparent insanity about this is that they hope AGI will solve aging and death for them personally.

I don't know what any of this means but I am deeply intrigued.

We all know each other, we know each other's animals, we help each other out. I think some of you have very incorrect ideas about what rural living is like, or very specific ideas that don't hold globally.

I live in one of the most rural spots in the UK, between two villages that are so small they have about 10 households each. Many of my neighbours are part of extended families that have lived here since before records were made. It's a very strong community.

Especially to indigenous communities worldwide!

Your replies are impressively full of people who look at rural America and instead of concluding "genocidal religious fundamentalist settler colonialism is bad" they decide "rural is bad."

I agree with you except that twink James Bond would be a really fun twist to watch.

Everything implied by what you wrote could be accurate, but there's a lot of propaganda/PR crafting in that phrasing and we should be skeptical and fact check.

Finally, "linked to cattle ranching" is a weasel phrase. Is it driven by cattle ranching, or is it forest clearance as a timber cash grab followed by soybean farming that strips the soil and then cattle put on when it's not good for anything else?