Dunge

3, 6, 13, 18 & 19 for me.

All things considered, I’m still surprised that they didn’t allow Gaetz through. There are some morals in there somewhere even if they’re shrivelled up and stuffed in a cardboard box under the stairs.

Sounds like a load of Pollocks to me.

I think there’s much to be said for throwing our lot in with Scandinavia. I see them as more reliable than a lot of continental Europe.

I’m increasingly of the opinion that the only way to stop this is the regulation of the internet. I don’t know exactly what that looks like but it’s having a malign influence on society. Maybe one for the Unpopular Opinions thread.

I keep on hoping that Trump will get bored and spend his days cheating at golf but, alas, no luck so far.

I don’t see him appointing a successor. It’s possible he picks a son, or Ivanka, but he only really cares about himself, from day to day. He doesn’t have a belief set to pass on, just a load of circumstances he uses to manipulate others to get more power and personal glory.

He won’t inspire the same devotion as Trump gets.

I don’t know whether he has dementia or otherwise, but something curious I have noticed over the last few months is that whenever he has a meeting with someone or has to concentrate on something, he comes out of it parroting the person he’s met. Meeting with Keir Starmer? Comes away saying they don’t agree on everything but are building a good relationship - basically the kind of words you’d expect from Starmer’s mouth. Phonecall with Putin? He starts parroting Putin. All the talk of negotiating positions I think is rot. He’s coming across as someone who doesn’t know his own mind.

Shame he can’t see Putin as inherently untrustworthy though.

I think given the situation there’s a good argument for keeping his cards close to his chest.

Only by piggybacking off NATO. Angle-Saxons or otherwise, that is the truth.

No, but it is true. Europeans have gleefully queued up to slag off America for years for any number of reasons and now we’re facing a world without their support we don’t like it. It’s the great pretence of the EU, that peace was founded on it as opposed to American might in NATO.

Incidentally, that post (Zelensky is a dictator because he refuses to hold elections) could become bitterly ironic in late 2028 if Trump’s behind in the polls.

Rubio looks utterly caught in the middle of all of this and not sure what on Earth to do. Vance has his eye on Vance ‘28 and is working everything to try to be Trump’s successor.

It always astonishes me how the intelligence services have a diabolical, surreptitious masterplan to rule and subjugate the world, yet simultaneously are unable to outwit Donald Trump.

I’d be interested to know what people make of that. It looks like the pilot just didn’t pull up in time.

It’s interesting to me that, after Starmer’s talked about sending troops to Ukraine as a post-deal peacekeeping force, other European countries are today queuing up to rule that out. It’s one of those situations where if I was Starmer I’d be taking the approach of “If you have any better ideas then I’m all ears.”

Yes. We’re the worst team in the league right now, including Southampton. I’m looking for what we’re doing to prep for next season and I’m honestly glad we haven’t spaffed millions on trash in January in a vain attempt to prevent the inevitable. The whole club needs a change of approach and I’m hoping the saving of money in January is a recognition of that.

If you can’t do the time, Get a sycophant to whinge for you.

I understand why he’s doing it and it probably is worth the gamble, particularly with investors behind him. But some of his decisions are at best strange and at worst suspect. He wants to buy a tip that’s reaching the end of its life - I get it. But trying the sue the council? Nonsense. And now backing AI to do his legal arguments for him rather than using actual lawyers? Perhaps this guy is actually just a bit loopy.

They do something like this before every big NATO meet though. It’s designed to scare people and convince them they have to end the war before something disastrous happens. In the case of the Republicans it’s been working for years.

Where’s the option for ban someone from the thread?

Yeah, I say EU, I was being lazy in that paragraph. Without an America committed to NATO, there probably needs to be a European defence treaty and serious consideration given to who should be part of it. For instance, I’m not sure there’s any great value in Hungary being there given how they’re basically just Putin apologists at this point. But geographically it’s difficult to work out.

Clearly you let the grated cheese melt into the hot potato, so cheese first.