Topic: Current Events

[goldshirt*9]

It is the worse for of Government except ........ blah blah blah ,
What done is done, Starmer will be out in a year and the house buying tax dodger will be in charge

[smokester]

But shockingly his (latest) party got 4.1 million votes - that is half a million more than the Liberal Democrats. Luckily the system is rigged so he only got 5 seats (to the LD 72), but still that is a lot of twats.

(... and if those four million had gone to the Conservatives, they would likely have won a landslide, regardless of the fact that no-one wanted them back in)

Democracy is mad.

This was kinda my original point about the french system. They'd prefer to break everything up into 67.97 million individual parties, and then see how many share the same tracks on their Spotify playlists which would be a good enough reason for them to bond together - never knowing for exactly how long.

I'd rather be caught in the wider net of a political ideology, and loosely be part of that team.

Of course, it didn't work this time as I abstained from voting due no party telling Israel that there is actually a red line - and it starts with thinking that children are collateral damage.

There, I said it.

[6pairsofshoes]

I'm worried that people will refrain from voting due to Biden's failure to tell Netanyahu in no uncertain terms to knock it off.  The endless images of innocents being killed and wounded under his strategy of getting rid of Hamas is oppressive.  At what point does Bebe wake up and figure out that this is NOT working?  And it makes everyone just hate him and his cause?  I can understand Muslims in Michigan not wanting to support Biden over this, but the prospect of President Trump is just too horrifying.

We think about emigrating.

[6pairsofshoes]

I think it is worrying that people will refrain from voting due to Biden's failure to successfully frame a sentence. One has to ask themselves how this chap got chosen - is he really the best that the Democratic Party could find?

Biden has a distinguished career in politics and has been both an effective vice president and a president. But I believe he had run with the idea that he'd be a bridge to a younger candidate for what would be his second term.  He had run for President several times before and I think it's hard for him to conceive of not completing a 2 term run.  But he is clearly struggling at times.  But he's a zillion times better than the others on offer.  As for your question?  The Democratic party has some problems and the media's obsession with making money in a continual effort to assuage shareholders has caused a displacement of goals, a variance from their responsibility to report the news from a dispassionate perspective.  Now, it's all about whipping up people's emotions so they'll keep tuning in.  One day we were stuck in a hotel room and CNN was the only thing on TV.  This is a 24 hour a day news channel.  Since nothing else was going on we were treated to non stop coverage about a missing boy scout.  Certainly something must have been going on that day in southeast Asia or maybe Latin America, but I suspect it was too boring to satisfy advertisers.  So there you have it.

[6pairsofshoes]

And now some gun nut has tried to shoot Trump, killing someone else in the process.  I am so bone weary of all the violent rhetoric and the lack of gun control here.  It's hard to determine if I have some unrealistic nostalgia or if the U.S. has always been this crazy and it somehow escaped my notice?

[goldshirt*9]

And now some gun nut has tried to shoot Trump, killing someone else in the process.  I am so bone weary of all the violent rhetoric and the lack of gun control here.  It's hard to determine if I have some unrealistic nostalgia or if the U.S. has always been this crazy and it somehow escaped my notice?

Just watched on the news.
This could give Trump his next turn in office as i'm sure he will milk this a lot

[8ullfrog]

I thought the secret service had been doing roof clearing since Dealy.

Hell, there's a mission in a video game that is almost identical to what went down. (New Vegas)

[goldshirt*9]

And now some gun nut has tried to shoot Trump, killing someone else in the process.  I am so bone weary of all the violent rhetoric and the lack of gun control here.  It's hard to determine if I have some unrealistic nostalgia or if the U.S. has always been this crazy and it somehow escaped my notice?

And the social network has already stated  "it was a set up "

[smokester]

This is a feature of "cancelation" politics. There are some things that cannot be said, for fear of retaliation from a pressure group and their social media billions (and idiotically the governments and legal systems that are in thrall to such groups): Ms Rowling (and many, may others) fall foul of the multicolour alliance for stating the obvious (regardless of ideology, there is a difference between men and women that can't be overcome on a whim), and all political parties around the world are falling foul of the fact that any criticism of any policy of Israel can, and will, be deemed as "antisemitism", and raise the klaxons of disapproval.

Perhaps with the exception of the Corbyn party.

Biden has a distinguished career in politics and has been both an effective vice president and a president.

True, and true.

But so did Thomas Jefferson, and you wouldn't elect him.

... he's a zillion times better than the others on offer.

A zillion times better than the Republic opponent, sure: but in these media-centric days there must be a better Democratic Party candidate that this one. The Democratic Party appear so keen on pushing boundaries that they alienate a lot of "centre" voters - black candidates, female candidates, geriatric candidates, LBGTMQI candidates (or some combination): surely there must be at least one decent politician that the mainstream could get behind?

I blame the Democratic Party equally to the Republican Party in the current fiasco. (Not that I have a say)

I heard a commentator a little while back speaking very highly of Wes Moore and how he would be a good candidate if Biden bailed. He certainly seemed to tick a lot of boxes according to what was said of him, but considering the American political system, if your history differs from that of mother Theresa (and his appeared to), you're in for a tough ride with all the mandatory mud slinging.

[smokester]

With one notable exception.

True dat.

[6pairsofshoes]

Perhaps with the exception of the Corbyn party.

True, and true.

But so did Thomas Jefferson, and you wouldn't elect him.

A zillion times better than the Republic opponent, sure: but in these media-centric days there must be a better Democratic Party candidate that this one. The Democratic Party appear so keen on pushing boundaries that they alienate a lot of "centre" voters - black candidates, female candidates, geriatric candidates, LBGTMQI candidates (or some combination): surely there must be at least one decent politician that the mainstream could get behind?

I blame the Democratic Party equally to the Republican Party in the current fiasco. (Not that I have a say)


I heard a commentator a little while back speaking very highly of Wes Moore and how he would be a good candidate if Biden bailed. He certainly seemed to tick a lot of boxes according to what was said of him, but considering the American political system, if your history differs from that of mother Theresa (and his appeared to), you're in for a tough ride with all the mandatory mud slinging.

There are several gifted and quite experienced politicians on the left who would be fine candidates.  The issue never even came up.  Biden was doing well when the primary ballots were being cast, and while there were mumurs regarding replacing him on the ticket, the threat of Trump combined with the normal momentum of a successful incumbent left everyone just going with the flow.

No question was raised about Biden's mental acuity, but the debate that took place recently was really hard to watch.  Biden's spates of incoherence in contrast to the bully spouting lies faster than he could breath was just a waste of everyone's time.  We got no information about Trump regarding his policy positions other than his usual bragging and radical disparaging of the country under "Crooked Joe" (recalling "Crooked Hillary" -- the guy needs a thesaurus). 

Trump whines like a little madam, plays the victim card the minute anyone holds him accountable for his actions.  If the news media reports his terrible behavior, he dismisses it as "fake news" despite video evidence of that behavior.  He really doesn't care what the effect of his administrations have on everyday lives of citizens.  He wants power, money, and a chance to dodge the cases that are soon to come about because he's under indictment for state and federal crimes in at least 3 separate districts.

I'm too tired to continue this but if you have a few weeks, I could ramble on about the despairing situation over here.  In short, Trump is a sociopath and I'm terrified that he will win again.

[6pairsofshoes]

Me too.

If  you are up for a little Theatre of the Absurd black humor I recommend Melania Trump's twitter feed today.  The artwork alone is pure comedy gold.

[6pairsofshoes]

I'd love to, but I don't twit.

I don't either, but when the article I'm reading in the New York Times provides a link, I tend to want to check it out.  Melania's staff, presumably (based on the fact that it was written in articulate, grammatical English), released a statement that was linked and the stream of responses was of interest, so I read them.  This one has a nice summary of Trump's regular incitement of violence at his rallies.  https://x.com/JustVent6/status/1812466960388469014

And his toady judge, Aileen Cannon, in Florida, just dismissed the slam dunk documents case against him.  The sleaze and corruption that follows this man like the stink surrounding Pepe le Peu is overwhelming.

[6pairsofshoes]

After the s***show of the Republican National Convention we have new hope now that Kamala Harris is running for President.  Younger people are more engaged and women see someone who is ready to fight for their rights.  Nobody is perfect but she's very smart and a good debater.  I'd like to see Trump bury himself in a debate against her.  He clearly has a problem with smart women so that will be interesting since he has basically no filter.

[smokester]

After the s***show of the Republican National Convention we have new hope now that Kamala Harris is running for President.  Younger people are more engaged and women see someone who is ready to fight for their rights.  Nobody is perfect but she's very smart and a good debater.  I'd like to see Trump bury himself in a debate against her.  He clearly has a problem with smart women so that will be interesting since he has basically no filter.

I find Trump's rhetoric very difficult to watch. It's just so infantile. I really hope that Kamala's bid gathers some traction.