Renton

He's a clear and present danger to himself, that one.

I mean, I've done the Trump list, but one of the things I truly, truly cannot get my head around is the Republican party , the Hawkish party of Reagan and Bush, kowtowing to Russia in this way. It's mind boggling. And I agree, we should regard it as a war. The only good thing to come out ofthe Ukraine travesty is its shown the Russian army are useless. Europe can beat Russia without America's help.

By "we" I guess you mean broadly left leaning progressives rather than me and you. I think a lot depends on how it pans out for Trump and how much of the safety rail he can tear down in the first 4 years. I think he can do one hell of a lot of damage and his economic policies (if followed through) will not endear him to the MAGAs, like it didn't in 2020. Question is whether democracy is still functioning in 2028, or by then it has changed to something more Putinesque. I mean, obviously, as others have said, no point in worrying about it for now at least.

I'm not saying I don't think they should run with a female leader btw, they should, if she is the best candidate. Because 1) its morally correct and 2) she will pick up votes from female voters. But I just think there are a sizable amount of men who are bigots and mysogynists now, unfortunately. Depressing that gender should even come into it. As to your point about the US and the interconnected world, the US is still completely an alien country to the UK. The societies are just so different I don't think its worth drawing comparisons. The internet can darw you into false perceptions because no matter where you are from you will tend to drift into your preferred silo. Not so in person over there. Americans want a leader who projects an image of power most of all. In america, it more important to be powerful than correct. A woman could fit this bill but I don't think Harris did. Look, tbh, at this point I just think the US is a rancid society. I'd follow in Gemmill's footsteps and be done with it but it still fascinates me and like it or not I know it affects me.

I'm just saying the data is 14 years old, before the modern age of autocracy and popularism. The author has made the assumption the data could have only moved one way. Do you really think this is reasonable? Edit: And, sorry, haven't you previously posted about the rise of angry young men, incels etc, or was that someone else?

I kind of agree on the generality here Rayvin about drawing the wrong conclusions, and its very likely the democrats will (although I am sure they will do their own research). But I think Harris's sex was definitely a problem. No idea about how that survey was conducted or how representative it was but: Even 4% is a massive thing in US elections. There is psephological evidence from the actual election as well as masses of anecdotes that "maleness" was a factor this time round. They stopped asking the question 14 years ago, which is probably the most moronic thing I have ever heard. 14 years is a long time and the World is a very, very different place now. They seem to have assumed the trend could only go in one way. To this, I think you can only say:

Phew. I'm so glad this Jacob Ress Mogg fellow (not a global elite) has told us about how grateful we should be that Donald Trump (not a global elite), backed by Elon Misk (definitely not a global elite) has crushed the global elites!

Hobbit porn.

Holden, we have lived through one Trump administration where he was younger, saner, less vengeful and did not have unfettered power. I'm basing my opinions on what might happen basedon that and what he has said. We're getting into Leopards Eating People's Faces Party stuff here. Do not be surprised when Trump does some of the stuff he said he will. And if this is just 10% of that stuff (it won't be), that is bad news.

Thing is, macroenconomic impacts seldom hit you literally the next day (unless you losse your job) and are incredibly hard to pin on single events. You're a clever bloke though. You know how this will impact on our economy and politics in the NEAR FUTURE. And I completely respect you not wanting that discussion, but you don't have to become a denialist.

I've actually got a whole load of shit in my personal life to stoke my anxiety issues. This is just background shit. Just making the point saying "this won't affect me" is fine, but it's demonstrably not true. Not to mention we have posters here are very much directly affected. Not a lot pisses me off about this board but people complaining about me complaining might be one them. We all react differently to stuff. I like to think what the potential outcome might be. I try to do this as objectively as I can, it's not catastrophising in my view. If people think it is then they are free to tell me why and what the alternative prediction is, I'm open to other interpretation. But personally, I think at the moment things look bleak because they are bleak.

Good question. And who's going to do the rich Republicans' gardening? Feels like an extreme version of Brexit. "What, Jose the handyman has been deterned? I didn't mean those type of immigrants....".

Working for an American Pharma consultancy, it very much is my problem. Look, we all know this is a problem in one way or another that will impact us in a multitude of ways. You can choose to face it, or ignore it. You seem to be in the odd place of failing at both.

Christ, I hadn't even thought what the effect of Musk cronyism might be on NASA. Hope you are okay Jimbo, unfortunately the UK has also turned to shit in your absence, although we don't have your levels of insanity.

Hi ghost Gemmill. Why do you think there will be a next time? There won't be. It'll either be an outright dictatorship or there will be some pretence of democracy akin to Russia.

It's not even restricted to football fans. Here's a typical thread about how great the Empire theatre is, apparently people come from miles around to visit it and it is much better than Newcastle's Theatre Royal. (They have threads like this time to time, like they have a bigger swimming pool. Also they bring up them owning the airport thing a lot more than any NUFC fan I can tell). Why aye!

As a kid growing up in the 80s when the 4 minute warning felt like an all too likely possibility, I remember us talking as mates about what we would do in those 4 minutes. Think the unanimous response was pretty much "Yeah, I'd have a shag!". I mean for some reason now as low testerone middle aged bloke (hey, we can't all be MF), that really doesn't strike me as something that would be happening.

Jusat listening to some of my economics podcasts. If the US public hate inflation, they are in for a shock. "Returning" 11 million immigrants currently doing low paid work and introducing unilateral tariffs on imports will be massively inflationary. Also tax cuts expected will raise 7 TRILLION dollars on the US debt. I'm hearing the word "insane" from a lot of these economists. Oh aye, we will get "spill over" consequences here in the UK due to uncertainty, meaning today's interest cut is the last one you can expect for a long time.

Brilliant. Gemmill would love that if he hadn't left the thread.

Your work CV is quite the thing! MF: "Did I mention the time I was an underwater diver on the jovian moon of Europa?" "Ahh, yeah, that was when I Scarlett Johansson's personal anus cleaner (she was a stander btw....)" Me: 25 years sitting at a desk.

That looks like a painful stick for fucking with.

Trouble is, I haven't heard you say anything remotely tangible or concrete. In my ideal world, focussing on the UK, I would go for much, much closer integration witht the EU, with the UK joining the 4 freedoms as a matter of urgency. I would like us to join the EU, then the euro, and then the EU to become completely fedarlised with Brussels as the capital and major regional capitals like London in a hub and spoke model. Together as a cohesive unit the EU could stand against the tyranny of the US, China, and Russia. I'd pool our defences and use our nuclear deterrent as an umbrella protection for the continent, along with the French. There would be no place for NATO, although Canada and Turkey could become associate members. I would also unfortunately deregulate in some key areas relating to technology and commerce to make us more competitive with the US, but protect individual rights. I'd ban US and Chinese social media platforms and have more closely EU regulated ones as an alternative. I'd... I'd... And there I am typing horseshit. I live in the real World. In the real World, even the first of my solutions is not politically possible. We're an island off the coast of a diminishing economic super power on one side and an ascendent authoritarian super power some way off on the other. And because we are part of neither, we are pretty much in a doom loop at this stage. But history tells us, things will one day change. We just have to wait for that day.

I don't have one. We're fucked.

I think the state of Universities is shocking. And the idea of grading your tutor - well, that definitely puts me off a career in academia (that plus the terrible salary). Honestly, I think we should have capped university at a much lower proportion of places and made entry based purely on academic merit, with those students being subsidised. I gues I would say that. But now, it's just another industry, another service, with the purpose of making money. Not long 'til my kids will need to decide on this.