Things are very different among Republicans. Their party has historically won elections by appealing to racial enmity and cultural anxiety, but its actual policy agenda is dedicated to serving the interests of the 1 percent, above all through tax cuts for the rich — which even Republican voters don’t support, while they truly loathe elite ideas like privatizing Social Security and Medicare.
What Donald Trump has been doing is telling the base that it can order à la carte. He has, in effect, been telling aggrieved white men that they can feed their anger without being forced to swallow supply-side economics, too. Yes, his actual policy proposals still involve huge tax cuts for the rich, but his supporters don’t know that — and it’s possible that he doesn’t, either. Details aren’t his thing.
.. The Republican establishment has been routed because it has been playing a con game on its supporters all along, and they’ve finally had enough.
And yes, Mr. Trump is playing a con game of his own, and they’ll eventually figure that out, too. But it won’t happen right away, and in any case it won’t help the party establishment. Sad!
Tiny Motor Powers a New Threat to Cycling Races
In an interview on Monday, Varjas said that his crank-assist devices could produce more than 250 watts, the amount of power a professional rider might typically average during a four-hour race. The smaller hub-assist motors, which he makes only for custom orders, typically produce only about 25 watts, he said, and require the rider to be able to maintain a high pedaling rate as is the case with all professionals. Even a 25-watt boost would be significant during a professional race.
.. “If you have this system, you can stay with the group, but nobody hears it, nobody sees it, nobody knows about it,” he said of the devices, which cost 10,000 to 25,000 euros (about $11,300 to about $28,200), depending on features.
.. But he added that he believed that some kinds of carbon fiber, the material used to make pro bikes, could render the technology invisible to the cycling union’s new screening devices.
Offshore in central London: the curious case of 29 Harley Street
On a central London street renowned for high-class healthcare sits a property that houses 2,159 companies. Why has this prestigious address been used so many times as a centre for elaborate international fraud
The whole saga had been scripted by a conman named Lal Bhatia. Sir Richard Benson was an actor. He had never rescued Buckingham Palace from foreclosure. The billions and the knighthood were fictitious. S&N had no assets, beyond a registered presence at a house in London – 29 Harley Street.
.. Over the decades, doctors like him have imbued Harley Street with an aura of authority; an aura that surrounds any venture based here.
.. The house is currently home to 2,159 companies, for which it operates as a large, ornate and prestigiously located postbox and answerphone. There is nothing illegal in this but some have used this address for improper purposes.
.. Companies are both easy and cheap to establish in Britain – and the process is almost entirely unmonitored. Nobre and Bhatia are far from the only criminals to have realised that they are pretty much the perfect weapon for fraud.
.. It is an article of faith in modern politics that creating companies should be as easy as possible.
.. The sector has expanded, however, in all sorts of directions: most notably by creating “shelf” companies. Shelf companies are ready-made and available for purchase. Their advantage to the purchaser is that they give a reassuring impression of longevity to what is essentially a brand-new operation, since they have documents extending back years.
.. As soon as companies were involved in owning other companies, as well as being their directors and secretaries, it became extremely difficult to discover who really controlled them
.. Edwina Coales, a serial director of companies registered at 29 Harley Street, is or has been an officer at 1,560 of the companies listed on the Companies House website.
.. It has 25,000 shelf companies available for purchase right now, with nominee directors, secretaries and shareholders available too. Yet, its office is not in a tax haven in the Caribbean or the English Channel. It is right in the heart of central London, half an hour’s walk from the Houses of Parliament, churning out companies for whoever wants them.
A Simple Triathlon Story, Until a Reporter Went the Distance
From talking to Dan Empfield, who runs the forum as part of his larger triathlon-related business, I learned that triathletes view cutting a course — deliberately failing to run, swim or bike the whole way, and then lying about it — as the worst thing an athlete can do, far worse than doping.