Rayvin

It's better viewed as promoting freedom.

Would also say that Gordon is probably my favourite player. We have many to choose from tbh but it's the energy that just gets me on the edge of my chair sometimes. I'm really pleased we signed him.

Jordan honestly comes across as someone trying to be smarter than he actually is. You can tell he doesn't have the legs as a journalist to be anywhere near as penetrating as he seems to want to be. That said, it is a good interview.

Aye maybe right. That Joker movie is going to look prophetic I think.

Yeah that's the thing, it's far more likely to be from their side of the aisle. Still, there's an incredible amount of schadenfreude amongst the left on this too. I do wonder how much longer we keep a lid on this sort of division.

This story is being framed online as someone killing an evil health insurance boss after the loss of a family member due to insurance refusing to pay. It's an actual 'eat the rich' moment if so. I'm curious to see how it develops but I'd imagine the authorities won't want to portray him as a robin hood style figure.

I think you're right yes, no surprise to learn he's the on the right wing.

World War 3 is going to be a series of civil wars conducted globally at this point.

“Through this martial law, I will rebuild and protect the free Republic of Korea, which is falling into the depths of national ruin,” Yoon said during a televised speech, invoking South Korea’s formal name. “I will eliminate anti-state forces as quickly as possible and normalise the country,” he said, while asking the people to believe in him and tolerate “some inconveniences”. Fucking hell, we really are going to end up in some sort of global clusterfuck. This is what the race to the bottom leads to I suppose, it's now just a free for all everywhere as no one has any moral authority anymore. Seemingly he's frustrated that there is gridlock in Korean parliament because the opposition has too much control within it. So naturally, democracy must be dismantled to pave the way for this guy to 'personally save the country'. That's what I've picked up so far at least.

Tbh, I give a fuck about it because if it was one of us facing jail in this situation and being in particular targeted by politics, no one would be riding in on a white horse to save us. It is corruption. There is no defensible reason why Biden has done this other than that he decided to be a father first and a president second. Fair enough, but then IMO we should ban parents from being president because some things actually are more important than your kid. The left should have gotten tough by locking Trump up when it had the chance, by barring him from running again. not by sinking to his level in the family favours stakes. As for the 6 months down the line thing... firstly, so what if they did? It's a nonsense argument that can be dismissed by 'country first'. Secondly, even if it stuck so what? Biden isn't running again, his days at the wheel of our side of the argument are over. I'm not saying it's fair what is happening to his son, or that he's wrong as a father to do what he did. But he absolutely is wrong as a political leader to have done it.

This isn't about fighting dirty in a political war though, this is about an old man getting his son off from a crime. It doesn't benefit 'the left' at all. It just benefits him. I agree with you absolutely on the left needing to be prepared to play dirty - but Biden has just squandered some of our credibility for doing that on an entirely personal matter. Or can you tell me how this benefits 'our team'?

Renton has the right of this and any view of it to the contrary is partisan stuff IMO. We have to hold our side to a higher standard than they do, it's basically the only source of credibility we have. If we abandon that, it's a race to the bottom for who can be the most shit while getting away with it. Trump certainly would have continued anyway, but now we've lost all ability to say anything about it. Or some of us have anyway. Biden shouldn't have pardoned his son, it's an abuse of power and while I understand his reasons it just isn't acceptable. The answer has to be that his son is protected through judicial safeguards and apolitical operating. Not by fighting fire with fire. If that made his son a martyr to the cause, so be it. Plenty of others have been, plenty of people die every day as a result of this culture war bullshit. Why his son should be spared simply because daddy is president, I don't know. As I said last page, I can understand him doing it - but it's weak. Not presidential. Nothing new with Biden though tbf. I'm also going to agree that a country which gives one man the power to unilaterally intervene in justice like this, is a joke. The president of the US has way too much power for a single person.

The problem with this is - yes, it's reasonable in the context and I don't judge him as a father for this. However... it's a man saving his kid at the expense of credibility of the "sane" side of politics. It's more ammunition for the people whose outlook is 'they're all the same'. It's something that the footsoldiers of sanity - people like us - now need to try to argue against and justify on his behalf in discussions the world over with morons. Hunter Biden absolutely did not deserve what likely would have come his way if he hadn't been pardoned, but I think the the needs of the many should have come first here.

Farage is trying to whip up hysteria about the Chagos Islands now, claiming the Trump government is outraged by it. The current US government has signed off on it at every level but honestly this is going to be the next few years. Farage backed by Trump/Musk is going to be the opposition, not the Tories.

I go back to this notion that the West needs to wake up to the fact that Russia declared war on us 10 years ago - I still recall PL posting that Cadwalladr tweet that said as much and it was an eye opening moment for me. A lot of the problems we are now seeing can be traced back to Putin (though I suspect it's now taken on a life of its own, sadly).

Also to be honest, I'm not a fan of his as you know, but you have quite rightly pointed out that he is achieving some things in amidst all of this. For his own sake - not mine, not for my philosophical position - I wish he was shouting and screaming about it more. Labour have continuously let others set the agenda ever since Blair with the exception of Corbyn's doomed run. Like the guy or not, he was chasing his own plan. Starmer needs to be calling out and challenging the bullshit narratives, he cannot just rely on people taking notice of the fact that he's doing a decent job under difficult circumstances. Biden proves that much.

I mean, I don't particularly subscribe to the notion that Truss' plan was fit for purpose at even a theoretical level tbh. I also trust professionals and experts for what it's worth, but having spent a lot of time around such educated people professionally, what is clear is that technocrats may be good at running things well, but not so much at running them towards any particular outcome. We go back to this need for vision. I'll take technocrats and responsible government all day long if there's some sort of direction we're moving in, and someone who can carry the rest of us with them. Starmer isn't that man.

Think this is spot on actually. And I suppose some would argue that Southgate managed England exceptionally well and had them achieve more than anyone else in living memory. But then others look at his reign and think that we could have had so much more if he'd just trusted his players more and went for it. Kinda curious where @Renton would line up on that argument actually, wonder if it's a risk management style that separates people on this.

He's ceding ground to the far right philosophically. I acknowledge the disagreements elsewhere but I suppose I'm referring to his initial pledges.

Ah, then they're safe. Fair.

Presumably with both the house and senate under republican control, along with the supreme court, an amendment should be possible for them? I mean what other structure would they need to control?

I think the main issue with Starmer is exactly what SBTP says, he's a coward. He's got a massive majority and yet acts as if there's only one seat in it. Fuck the press, fuck the Tories - who knows what the world looks like in 5 years ffs. There's no point worrying about that now, nothing they're doing at this point will be remembered by anyone by the time the next GE comes along. We need an Obama or a Blair, and instead we've got a Chamberlain - which would be understandable if it was actually working. But it's not. He's being eviscerated all over the place, looks weak to all sides. Starmer feels like a man who doesn't trust himself - he's abandoned a great many things he believed in, which should have formed the strong foundations he went into office with. He's someone who reacts to things, rather than sets his own agenda. Doesn't have the balls to impose himself. Let's hope he's just keeping the seat warm for someone better...

How far fetched is it to imagine that Trump changes the constitution to permit non-natural born citizen to become President? To me that feels more likely than any sort of coup or dismantling of democracy.

Makes a difference to you though. Increasingly I think that's all we can do, stand up for what we believe in just for our own sake.

I personally feel nowhere near enough is made out of Farage's past either tbh.