“Distinct possibility, but the Chinese facing a serious backlash globally because of their sheer stupidity in letting the Coof out.”

Not to mention malice. When Xinnie the Pooh banned internal travel to and from Wuhan, but NOT international travel, that was an act of war as far as I’m concerned.

After all, Hounslow now competes with Leeds for national top-ten Crap Town placement.

Hey, I have friends who live in Hounslow, and…

I agree with you.

Yeah, it’s definitely not where I’d want to live in London if I could avoid it. Then again, I wouldn’t want to live in or around London, FULL STOP, if I could avoid it. The city is no longer British and hasn’t been for years. It’s changed completely from what it was when I went there for college.

But my favourite Crap Town in all of the London sprawl has to be Ilford.

Yeah, I see where you’re coming from. Personally I’d put Hackney above Ilford, and Shadwell (or, really, all of Tower Hamlets) right at the top of the list, but that’s me.

But Londoners never really age well, have you noticed that?

Damned straight. Something about living in London ages people fast. It’s just NOT a fun place to be. It USED to be, once upon a time, but I can put my hand on my heart and say that living in a crappy junk-filled flat in deep-south Moscow was far more fun and enjoyable than living in even the nice parts of Central London.

My go-to quote is “this mask is as effective at stopping the Coof as the TSA is at stopping terrorists. We have both for the same reason – not because they work, but to make politicians feel good about themselves because they helped. THAT’S their real job.”

That is a highly accurate assessment of both masks and the TSA. I still haven’t forgotten the breakdown that the former head of security for David Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, Rafi Sela, did over at Cracked (back when that was a good site) in 2013 about how “[t]he TSA couldn’t protect you from a 6-year-old with a water balloon”.

So they activated all of their plants on the take in tech and the media (and you just KNOW they have plenty) to start hysterically advocating for lockdowns in order to cripple their competition. D!ck move, but smart.

Distinct possibility, but the Chinese facing a serious backlash globally because of their sheer stupidity in letting the Coof out. And I don’t think the CCP quite recognises the scale of their cock-up yet. But if rumours coming out of leadership circles there are to be believed, there is a massive factional power struggle ramping up and Xinnie-the-Flu’s position has been seriously weakened because of the Chinese Mumps.

We’ll see how it all plays out. What is very clear right now is that the Chinese dictatorship doesn’t quite know how to respond to the multiple body blows of the pandemic, massive natural disasters within the country, ethnic unrest in Mongolia and Manchuria and Xinjiang, and serious economic and diplomatic pressures applied by the God-Emperor Donaldus Magnus Triumphus.

I think the CCP’s plan is to throw their (considerable) media influence and weight behind Sleepy Creepy Uncle Joe and hope and pray that he gets elected. That explains a lot of their behaviour of late. But I think they’re going to be every bit as disappointed as everyone else.

That’s hilarious, I’d rank Camden Town highly compared to Hounslow.

After all, Hounslow now competes with Leeds for national top-ten Crap Town placement.

But my favourite Crap Town in all of the London sprawl has to be Ilford.

You could accidentally wind up in Hounslow if you take a wrong turn or leave the Tube early on the way to Heathrow, but you absolutely cannot wind up accidentally in Ilford.

It’s like E5 without many of the redeeming shopping features.

If you’re seeking out emergent dystopias, however, E11 and Leytonstone High Road, that’s where to go.

But Londoners never really age well, have you noticed that?

I didn’t start out in London, BTW, and it shows. The West Country doesn’t age you as fast as inhaling all of that nasty black gunge that comes out of the Piccadilly, Central, and Victoria lines, let alone dealing with the generally dirty environment in which you cannot see a single star at nighttime and the street lighting that seeps through every window not adequately covered with blackout curtains.

It makes a huge difference: most Londoners usually guess about thirty years younger when they guess my age.

I swear that China is behind all of the lockdown hysteria. However the bug got out, I think they figured that once it was in the wild, they recognized a chance to get ahead since they could just imprison or kill everyone who had it, while the rest of the world would just have to let it burn out. So they activated all of their plants on the take in tech and the media (and you just KNOW they have plenty) to start hysterically advocating for lockdowns in order to cripple their competition. D!ck move, but smart.