Dunge

I believe the UK and France are seen a useful part of American security, given soft power reach around the world. Germany probably counts in that as well. As for the rest of Europe, there are definitely those in the Republican Party who look at them and go “why are we funding their security?”

If you want something meatier to chew on, how about this: I, personally, don’t believe fetuses should have the same rights as born children. Go.

I always think the elephant in the room with the issue of slavery is simply money. I heard the other day that reparations could be calculated as 18 trillion pounds. I don’t think we could pay that even if we wanted to. The very act of doing it would destroy the currency and bankrupt the country. If reparations were calculated as 18 million then we’d have paid it and offered a full and heartfelt apology years ago.

Out of interest, do you imagine women to be having lots of s*x, regularly finding themselves pregnant, then going “oh well, better go off and have my quarterly abortion”?

From what I’ve read, the people of Belarus aren’t as behind Lukashenko as he’d like the world to think. ie Cooperating with Russia is one thing, but if he sent them to actual war, there’s a chance the army could turn on him. I think it’s a thread neither he nor Putin want to pull at.

Also audacious, bold, brash, brazen, flagrant, high-handed, immoral, improper, outrageous, rude, unabashed, unprincipled and wanton.

I’m not even sure what these activists think they can do. If they believe they can apply the strategy for Labour to win the last election to the Democrats’ current situation then I think they’re badly wrong. On the other hand, the equivalent hypocrisy of Farage’s actions crossed my mind as well.

I genuinely don’t understand why most Twitter users are still there.

If it had just been protesting about NASA and the deep state, I’d agree. But he was actively partaking in riots and shouting “child killers” about a group of immigrants who blatantly had nothing to do with what happened in Merseyside. Obviously you don’t want the bloke to die in prison. It wasn’t a death sentence. But he made his own bed.

It was political in the sense that he was directly inciting public disorder and you have to stamp down on that if you want to maintain order in society.

Bloke clearly incited violence as far as I see.

I get the feeling I’m not going to be allowed Potato.

Curries and chilli are out for me. And mushrooms. But egg fried rice sounds like something I could look into.

I really need to eat less meat as I eat a lot of it. As a notoriously picky eater though, I do struggle to find vegetarian meals that I like.

52% looking pretty decisive now…

Are you suggesting you can’t be a true vegan unless you also avoid even metaphorical animal husbandry? “No, I won’t flip the bird. That would be disrespectful of natural boundaries.”

Pretty much everything Trump says is made up. Words just leave his mouth and his supporters fall over themselves to justify them. covfefe.

Even the message of national renewal is woolly. It’s “make things work better” without a particular aim or direction. It was enough to win this year’s election where the main/only danger was Labour shooting itself in the foot. As you say, it won’t be next time.

It’s true that nobody’s come up with an answer to globalisation and its control over country finances. Problem is it allows liars who pretend they have sound more attractive.

I agree, but it has nonetheless. It could be framed as an opportunity, a step towards scientific development, independence and space travel. Instead it’s caught up with animal rights (see the other thread), social justice and reparations. It irritates the hell out of me whenever I hear someone from Reform wanting to reap Net Zero but it’s a message that is resonating with people because it hasn’t been isolated.

If there’s something I think centrists both here and in America are lacking, it’s a vision. A vision for the future of the country, a destination to reach. Solving climate change should be it, but centrists never been able to separate that from left wing politics.

I think it’s increasingly difficult at the moment for centrists (let’s at least call the Democrats relative centrists in a US sense) to offer many new and interesting policies. A lot of centrist policies are recognisable and somewhat dull. And I say that while fundamentally agreeing with most of them.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg78ljxn8g7o So, apparently this is legal.

There’s talk of them defending the border while redeploying Russian forces to somewhere else. I would’ve thought that would be defeating the object though: Putin wants warm, non-Russian bodies to throw into the meat grinder. Having North Koreans only defending the border doesn’t stem the flow of Russian corpses. Plus I doubt Kim cares whether they come back or not. The “alliance” would be worth it many times over to him. He’d just make sure not to send his best soldiers, which Putin and his meat grinder wouldn’t need anyway.

I don’t think it was a good idea. I’m reminded of our election in 2019 when Corbyn had just finished a car crash interview with Andrew Neil, while Boris hid in a fridge to escape a single unfriendly reporter, let alone talk with Neil himself. Not braving the crocodiles didn’t hurt Boris in the end, and his strategists were probably right because the risk was so high. Avoiding them hurt a little, but mostly drew the ire of political watchers and political opponents, who weren’t going to be swayed anyway. Kamala Harris should have spent her time banging the drum of why Trump wouldn’t face her in a direct debate again instead of hiding behind Fox. Instead, she walked straight into a Republican trap. There’s brave and there’s stupid. This was stupid.