General News Thread

[Jattdogg]

Gotta love how Nutlick is essentially blaming us. Fking jokers 

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/22/lutnick-carney-davos-usmca-00741329

[Foxdiamond]

3 hours ago, bovril said:

Per capita we're just below.... Greenland 

UK is one of only 5 nations on the permanent security council of the UN. Just to add the under spend by European nations on defence was a mistake made years ago. Of course it wasn't  good political practice to spend extra on defence before Putin changed the scene

[Foxdiamond]

See draft dodger Trump telling bare faced lies about Nato nations outside of US regarding Afghanistan. 

[WigstonWanderer]

Came across this comment in the "The Rest is Politics" Davros thread:

 

The widely circulated Trump critique by Oliver Kornetzke reads: "Behold. The festering carcass of American rot shoved into an ill-fitting suit: the sleaze of a conman, the cowardice of a draft dodger, the gluttony of a parasite, the racism of a Klansman, the sexism of a back-alley creep, the ignorance of a bar-stool drunk, and the greed of a hedge-fund ghoul—all spray-painted orange and paraded like a prize hog at a county fair. Not a president. Not even a man. Just the diseased distillation of everything this country swears it isn’t but has always been—arrogance dressed up as exceptionalism, stupidity passed off as common sense, cruelty sold as toughness, greed exalted as ambition, and corruption worshiped like gospel. It is America’s shadow made flesh, a rotting pumpkin idol proving that when a nation kneels before money, power, and spite, it doesn’t just lose its soul—it shits out this bloated obscenity and calls it a leader."

[Jon the Hat]

1 hour ago, WigstonWanderer said:

Came across this comment in the "The Rest is Politics" Davros thread:

 

The widely circulated Trump critique by Oliver Kornetzke reads: "Behold. The festering carcass of American rot shoved into an ill-fitting suit: the sleaze of a conman, the cowardice of a draft dodger, the gluttony of a parasite, the racism of a Klansman, the sexism of a back-alley creep, the ignorance of a bar-stool drunk, and the greed of a hedge-fund ghoul—all spray-painted orange and paraded like a prize hog at a county fair. Not a president. Not even a man. Just the diseased distillation of everything this country swears it isn’t but has always been—arrogance dressed up as exceptionalism, stupidity passed off as common sense, cruelty sold as toughness, greed exalted as ambition, and corruption worshiped like gospel. It is America’s shadow made flesh, a rotting pumpkin idol proving that when a nation kneels before money, power, and spite, it doesn’t just lose its soul—it shits out this bloated obscenity and calls it a leader."

Bloody hell that is on point.  Reminds me of this brilliant piece of writing from his first term.

 

"Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.

[Sampson]

11 hours ago, kenny said:

There isn't any point pretending that we aren't in the top echelons of global power either, even if acting downtrodden and putting ourselves down is a national past-time.

 

If we are treating us as a middle power like Canada or Japan, then the only large powers are now the USA and China. Weirdly Trump thinks Russia is there when the only thing about it that is large is its landmass.

In that case why are we not taking a lead in this?

 

The world is currently tearing apart the current order and jarringly going through its biggest realignment of alliances and ideals since WW2. Yet it feels like we’re just sat there doing nothing and waiting for someone to tell us what to do - Starmer too scared to both upset Trump and look like he’s getting too near to the eu because of some referendum a decade ago which took place in a different world and Farage and Badenoch sychophanting everything about Trump like yes men. Ed Davey the only one actually saying we shouldn’t sycophant up to Trump like Carney is and he gets zero press coverage.

 

Britain should be taking the lead of creating this united 4th block seperate to US, China and Russia of Europe, Canada, Australia and others.

 

This is a time of creating huge new ambitious organisations, alliances or even new national and supra-national institutions and ideals in the same we did in the years directly after WW2. It’s not a time to sit there passively - if we sit there passively Trump, Putin and Xi will do it for us and force us to be part of them 

Edited 23 January by Sampson

[kenny]

31 minutes ago, Sampson said:

In that case why are we not taking a lead in this?

 

The world is currently tearing apart the current order and jarringly going through its biggest realignment of alliances and ideals since WW2. Yet it feels like we’re just sat there doing nothing and waiting for someone to tell us what to do - Starmer too scared to both upset Trump and look like he’s getting too near to the eu because of some referendum a decade ago which took place in a different world and Farage and Badenoch sychophanting everything about Trump like yes men. Ed Davey the only one actually saying we shouldn’t sycophant up to Trump like Carney is and he gets zero press coverage.

 

Britain should be taking the lead of creating this united 4th block seperate to US, China and Russia of Europe, Canada, Australia and others.

 

This is a time of creating huge new ambitious organisations, alliances or even new national and supra-national institutions and ideals in the same we did in the years directly after WW2. It’s not a time to sit there passively - if we sit there passively Trump, Putin and Xi will do it for us and force us to be part of them 

Or we be part of the EU? You make it sound very binary that massive corporations are the only future for our country.

 

Although you have fallen for trumps BS about Russia. Its not in the same sphere of power as the USA or China.

[Lionator]

On 17/01/2026 at 20:46, Lionator said:

Yes you call his bluff like Xi, Modi and Lula do. The term ‘taco’ exists for a reason. Europe has to stay strong, united and call his bluff, otherwise we might as well pack it all in. He will move onto something else next week. He rarely follows through on anything remotely meaningful if anything at all.  

Posted on Saturday night and seems to have aged very well. Trump simply doesn’t have the attention span to achieve or commit anything meaningful. Tokenistic strikes on Iran and Venezuela don’t count.

[st albans fox]

8 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Posted on Saturday night and seems to have aged very well. Trump simply doesn’t have the attention span to achieve or commit anything meaningful. Tokenistic strikes on Iran and Venezuela don’t count.

The next week or so will reveal if that’s true.  He has moved some big stuff towards the gulf.  He bottled out on attacking Iran during hr protests. is he going to do it once he has the ac’s in the area? 

[Lionator]

1 minute ago, st albans fox said:

The next week or so will reveal if that’s true.  He has moved some big stuff towards the gulf.  He bottled out on attacking Iran during hr protests. is he going to do it once he has the ac’s in the area? 

Ultimately it’s just air assets though, so it’ll be strikes, some stage managed diplomacy and nothing will have changed. They can’t take the regime down without boots on the ground even if they kill bossman Khamenei and not even Trump is stupid enough to do that. 

[kenny]

34 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Posted on Saturday night and seems to have aged very well. Trump simply doesn’t have the attention span to achieve or commit anything meaningful. Tokenistic strikes on Iran and Venezuela don’t count.

Trump is the USA at present. He won't always be.

 

He will have his eye on another plot of land soon, presumably Gaza will be his next conquest now that Canada and Greenland have failed.

[Sampson]

Be interesting to see if Farage supports his “dear, dear friend” draft-dodging Trump on this latest insulting rant against our 457 killed soldiers in Afghanistan or he does the usual “don’t worry, he’s my mate, I’ll have a word” shit. 
 

Surely he has to start reading the room soon that British people want to stand up against this anti-British and anti-European rhetoric 

Edited 23 January by Sampson

[Lionator]

5 minutes ago, kenny said:

Trump is the USA at present. He won't always be.

 

He will have his eye on another plot of land soon, presumably Gaza will be his next conquest now that Canada and Greenland have failed.

Trump is implementing wider US policy though, just in a bizarre way. Strategically nothing he is doing should be a surprise, the US is abandoning Europe and would be whether Trump was president or not. It’s just he does it in a much more brash way.

[Foxdiamond]

The BBC should ask JJ Chalmers who does a lot of work for them to a White Press briefing and ask how he received such serious wounds in Afghanistan if the British only had troops away from the front lines as Trump put it

[leicsmac]

55 minutes ago, Sampson said:

Be interesting to see if Farage supports his “dear, dear friend” draft-dodging Trump on this latest insulting rant against our 457 killed soldiers in Afghanistan or he does the usual “don’t worry, he’s my mate, I’ll have a word” shit. 
 

Surely he has to start reading the room soon that British people want to stand up against this anti-British and anti-European rhetoric 

Heard nothing from him so far, funnily enough. Looks like he's having Jenrick run interference. 

[Lionator]

The outrage over what Trump said about British troops in Afghanistan seems like pearl clutching as well. It’s almost as bad as sending our valuable troops into a militarily unwinnable geopolitical cesspit just to stroke some neocon’s burning desire for murdering brown people in an act of spiteful revenge. 

[leicsmac]

14 minutes ago, Lionator said:

The outrage over what Trump said about British troops in Afghanistan seems like pearl clutching as well. It’s almost as bad as sending our valuable troops into a militarily unwinnable geopolitical cesspit just to stroke some neocon’s burning desire for murdering brown people in an act of spiteful revenge. 

Check the latest response on the cvnts thread. 

 

That being said, don't let that be a distraction from the fact that Trump is a bigger shitbag of simply a different odour to those neocons, rather than a lesser one.

[Sampson]

13 minutes ago, Lionator said:

The outrage over what Trump said about British troops in Afghanistan seems like pearl clutching as well. It’s almost as bad as sending our valuable troops into a militarily unwinnable geopolitical cesspit just to stroke some neocon’s burning desire for murdering brown people in an act of spiteful revenge. 

People are pearl clutching because we’re all so desperate for something to finally be the final straw to break the camel’s back that gets our leaders to actually stand up to this guy who is quite openly and gleefully trying to project himself as knowingly and outed evil at this point, so he can watch everyone nod along so he gets to see his power like he’s Vladamir Harkonnen. 
 

It’s these constant pieces of open cruelty and intimidation that he actively wants to see if he get people to nod along to so he can see his own power. One of the most chilling parts of his davos speech was when he was publicly talking about leaders in the crowd saying something along the lines of “look they’re all looking down, can’t even bring themselves to look at up at me” and you could hear the mockery in his voice, like a cat playing with his mouse before he eats it, getting a kick out of his cruel power over it. 

[st albans fox]

5 hours ago, Foxdiamond said:

The BBC should ask JJ Chalmers who does a lot of work for them to a White Press briefing and ask how he received such serious wounds in Afghanistan if the British only had troops away from the front lines as Trump put it

Friendly fire ?

they’d make something up 

like Spanish flu ending WWI

 

trump was being interviewed on fox. It’s for his base, not us. He’s just backed down on Greenland so he has to keep on about nato  

being useless. lots of normal politicians make statements directed purely at their domestic base and they’re not narcissistic lunatics like him  

 

I think sometimes we take too much notice of his ignorance but then how do we know when we shouldn’t ?.

[Free Falling Foxes]

The chairman of Republicans abroad was on Question Time last night and he underplayed Trumps comments as 'Unfiltered'.

To me, that suggested many American politicians may share extreme and inaccurate views but they don't always reach the public.

[Foxdiamond]

1 hour ago, st albans fox said:

Friendly fire ?

they’d make something up 

like Spanish flu ending WWI

 

trump was being interviewed on fox. It’s for his base, not us. He’s just backed down on Greenland so he has to keep on about nato  

being useless. lots of normal politicians make statements directed purely at their domestic base and they’re not narcissistic lunatics like him  

 

I think sometimes we take too much notice of his ignorance but then how do we know when we shouldn’t ?.

Certainly a difficult balance while reacting to Trump. Dealing with friends or foe Trump definitely doesn't understand the need to speak softly as well as making it clear you have a big stick. 

[Sampson]

30 minutes ago, Foxdiamond said:

Certainly a difficult balance while reacting to Trump. Dealing with friends or foe Trump definitely doesn't understand the need to speak softly as well as making it clear you have a big stick. 

I disagree. I think it’s just that too many in Britain just haven’t woken up to who he considers friend or foe yet despite him, JD Vance and the US yearly policy reports making it abundantly and consistently clear. He’s fine to speak softly and not wave about his big stick to Putin, Orban or Milei for example. That board of peace speech should’ve made that clear. It also should’ve made it clear he’s creating institutions that mean America probably isn’t going back regardless of what happens in the next elections and that we have to assume the world order is changing permanently

 

Edited 23 January by Sampson

[Foxdiamond]

5 minutes ago, Sampson said:

I disagree. I think it’s just that too many in Britain just haven’t woken up to who he considers friend or foe yet despite him, JD Vance and the US yearly policy reports making it abundantly and consistently clear. He’s fine to speak softly and not wave about his big stick to Putin, Orban or Milei for example. That board of peace speech should’ve made that clear. It also should’ve made it clear he’s creating institutions that mean America probably isn’t going back regardless of what happens in the next elections and that we have to assume the world order is changing permanently

 

I hope you are wrong about the permanent change. I don't think he thinks the US needs friends 

[Parafox]

13 minutes ago, Sampson said:

I disagree. I think it’s just that too many in Britain just haven’t woken up to who he considers friend or foe yet despite him, JD Vance and the US yearly policy reports making it abundantly and consistently clear. He’s fine to speak softly and not wave about his big stick to Putin, Orban or Milei for example. That board of peace speech should’ve made that clear. It also should’ve made it clear he’s creating institutions that mean America probably isn’t going back regardless of what happens in the next elections and that we have to assume the world order is changing permanently

 

I think it's clear that NATO will diminish to a club of smaller nations that will have little clout in the event of a serious widespread conflict.

 

Trump is trying to build a different alliance. I guess it depends on which nations will join his club.

[Parafox]

7 minutes ago, Foxdiamond said:

I hope you are wrong about the permanent change. I don't think he thinks the US needs friends 

 

He doesn't because he feels he is all powerful and can rule the world alone.

 

I imagine he grew up having to go it alone with no friends and a very domineering father who demanded total respect before Donald could be trusted with the Trump empire.

 

The result, paranoid narcissism.