Rayvin

I have strong concerns about China being a far worse global issue than the US ever has been - and the US stepping back from the world stage has emboldened people like Bolsonaro with all the consequences that has had for climate change. We need a strong US until Europe or some more mature power can replace it. Surely the alternative is that we go back to cold and hot wars between major powers. I don't like US imperialism or aggression, but I'd support one world government style solutions to problems, and with the US shrinking into the background that just feels further away than ever. That's not really the topic here of course, but it's my concern. And my rage about Afghanistan concerns how little they appear to care about the brown people they've just left behind. EDIT - will also add that this decision seems pretty popular with the yanks, which is I expect why it's been done. He's made himself look weak by how terribly it's gone, but the actual decision seemed to be welcomed.

Just gonna have to agree to disagree, I guess. Still maintain that this has made the US look very weak, can't see any other angle on that. Maybe it was inevitable as you think, but I'm having a really hard time believing that this couldn't have been handled far better. Still, the US is in decline. Not sure what else we can expect at this point.

The solution was competent and robust withdrawal to give the remaining civilian and military forces time to organise themselves to oppose a bloodthirsty and murderous regime. All I'm getting from this withdrawal is arrogant, imperialist sentiments that the lives of the local people don't matter in the slightest. That's what is so enraging about it. We went in without a care or thought about these people, occupied the country for 20 years, and then threw them to the wolves. Its just disgusting.

If I were China, I'd be accelerating plans for Taiwan and HK. The US is going to do fuck all, that much has been signalled.

I would find it hard to believe that most if any levels of Afghan government and military had much more forewarning about this than we did. No we don't stay there forever, yes we never should have gone in, but to call all Afghani people who joined the democratic side "in it for the money or corrupt" is just poor taste IMO. Viewed differently, what we have done is spent 20 years rooting all all the pro-democracy elements that the Taliban might have struggled to deal with themselves, and handed them over on a plate. What exactly would have stopped US forces from continuing to occupy Kabul in full until they had evacuated everyone they needed to? Like fuck would the Taliban have launched an out and out attack on a full US contingent of soldiers. It's because Biden doesn't give a fuck about the lives lost. Not sure I can be convinced otherwise. America first, no matter the cost.

Not exactly what I meant although I can see how it needed further explanation. Trump devastated America's World standing and rather than redeeming it, with Afghanistan, Biden appears to have reinforced the perception of weakness that Trump created. That's all I meant. America looks more feeble now than at any time in living memory, IMO.

In a private conversation in 2010 with Holbrooke, the book says, Biden argued that America does not have an obligation to Afghans who trusted it: “Fuck that, we don’t have to worry about that. We did it in Vietnam, Nixon and Kissinger got away with it,” We're just following in Biden's lead. This whole thing has been a complete shambles. America looks even more pathetic at the moment than it did under Trump. Granted, Trump did a lot of the damage there for Biden to start with, but at his first real international test, Biden has taken a step down rather than up. This whole fiasco does such a disservice to everyone who worked and died for Afghanistan for 20 fucking years.

As always seems to be the way these days, I agree with you. From the perspective of both the Afghanis but also our own soldiers who have effectively wasted time, blood and lives for this capitulation. I don't know what the options on the table were but it seems clear that we stopped trying at a political level to advance the situation, some years back.

I reckon he'll see out the term. There's no threat coming from anywhere else no matter how good an occasional speech might be. We're midway through the Tory era, they're safe as houses IMO.

Given how perpetual everyone is on here, I could see it.

You'd think we'd be past this shit by now, mind.

In a geopolitical sense maybe you're right. Also it seems more and more certain to me that they're going to take back Taiwan, so the more the international community is opposed to them, the harder that will become. Either way though, I suspect a lot of innocent Chinese people will suffer a lot of abuse.

Which is something they or any other major country would do irrespective of whether or not they had something to hide. Would the US let international inspectors in to verify whether or not it had done something like this? It's just as likely that they wouldn't want someone to come in and expose the fact that their safety regulations/responses to the issue were entirely inadequate. We just don't have the evidence to speculate. I'm also not entirely sure what good comes of assuming or even knowing that they created it in a lab. We can't sue them, we won't go to war over it and we're not going to stop trading with them. We would see a global anti-Chinese backlash that would affect the lives of many innocent Chinese people quite negatively. You could argue that the truth is all that matters but the last thing we need IMO is to give the sort of people who voted for Trump something they can cling onto that might legitimise everything he said. "Trump was right about the China virus, maybe he was right about drinking bleach too!" While that particular example would solve many of the world's problems, I can't countenance it in good faith - sadly.

I mean I remember being given a lecture with my class by a party official when I lived there that went along the lines of "Prostitution does not exist in China. But if it did, you would be arrested for getting involved with it". If the question here is whether or not the CCP is capable of lying about this issue, the answer is 100% yes. See also the US government. No government in the world is beyond that, frankly - except maybe the European ones. I don't think that was ever the contention. It was that there was no evidence.

The Guardian is going in hard on the line that the government have bungled this self isolation operation given that COVID is now so widespread again after opening up that we're seeing food shortages as too many people are having to self isolate. Is this genuinely happening? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/23/england-facing-weeks-of-pingdemic-disruption-to-services-and-food-supply

Patel has been subjected to a vote of no confidence from the police. Does this mean anything or is it an empty gesture? I'm guessing the latter.

You maybe, but not everyone is as respectable and pure as you, ewerk..!

Pretty sure I remember reading that some 500,000 people have had their disability benefits cut under Johnson. And that he proposed that they go and get jobs. I can see articles about it online but they're admittedly only in local papers and not the major ones, so I'm hesitant to assume it's truth. But I think at the least it's probably safe to say that he hasn't done anything to make the situation better, while carrying our a number of actions which mean that their cost of living will go up.

I strongly suspect that alongside "macho, conservative values" this will be influenced by "knowing who their viewers are". The world might change and get to the stage where people don't want to watch volleyball for the scantily clad ladies, but I suspect that when/if that does happen, the real change will be that people just won't watch volleyball

I would take anyone with a degree of responsibility. Even an austere one. Johnson is an irresponsible child, squandering resources and wealth on things he doesn't understand, for outcomes he isn't informed about. Give me Osborne over this dopey fuck any day of the week. And then let me vote him out next time. Anything would be better at this point than this incompetent cunt of a man.

What the fuck was that rap battle man The takeover could be declared dead tomorrow by all involved parties and it still wouldn't mean he was right about anything as everything he has ever said has been evidence free speculative nonsense. But aye, let's double down on our "victory" with a rap battle in public. It's like something out of The Office.

I'm not intending to change anything I've been doing because I have absolutely no trust in the government on any level and have seen no convincing data to make me think this is anything other than a political stunt that will cost lives. But let's hope, for the sake of people's lives, that Johnson has got this right.

Are those numbers for real or did you make them up? EDIT - just saw the date, nvm. I'm so used to bad news on that front that I actually found that fringe believable.

I don't even pay for it now. Haven't had a TV license for about 10 years, don't need one, don't watch it.

I reckon he's running out of steam but I have nothing to base that on.