Politics and Current Affairs

Home » Forums » The Loveland Arms – pub chat » Politics and Current Affairs

Author
Topic
#102965

I wonder who’ll be next week’s Prime Minister?

Viewing 100 replies - 1,901 through 2,000 (of 2,126 total)
Author
Replies
  • #127359

    I’m watching an old interview with Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who used to be NATO secretary general, and he says it was Bush jr who pushed for inviting Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, while Condoleeza Rice and Bob Gates as well as Sarkozy and Merkel weren’t enthusiastic about that.

  • #127370

     

    (It’s the same raid, but it turns out Pete Hegseth talked about it in a general Signal chat including his wife and brother-in-law)

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #127374

    (It’s the same raid, but it turns out Pete Hegseth talked about it in a general Signal chat including his wife and brother-in-law)

    A series of leaks about military planning for the Panama Canal and the Middle East, about a possible consolidation of the combatant commands, and about a classified China briefing for Elon Musk at the Pentagon had deeply rattled Hegseth by mid-March, sources told CNN. So he and Kasper launched a leak probe, complete with polygraph tests.

    Following the press reports — including one in The New York Times about the questionable success of a massive military campaign against the Houthis — Hegseth began to lash out and grew suspicious that senior military officials, as well as some of his closest advisers, were leaking to undermine him, the sources added.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/20/politics/hegseth-second-signal-chat-military-plans/index.html

    Man, to be a fly on that wall.

    I’m kinda hoping that one day, Armando Iannucci will write a Death-of-Stalin style movie about the Trump administration.

    3 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127376

    Honestly the Biden administration would be just as funny, or even funnier. Dems let a senile man lead the world.

  • #127380

    Yeah, it’d be funny.  Not tragic because we’d still be getting the US funding a genocide, and using the cudgel of false antisemitism charges to curtail free speech and persecute college students.  We’d still be getting the erosion of women’s and LGBT rights in the face of rising fascism because Democrats would sooner compromise with the far right than consider enabling even the moderate left. We’d still be witnessing the death of the state in favour of more neoliberalism.

    But Biden, who didn’t even run last year might be senile.  Unlike Trump, who talks a non-stop stream of bullshit, doesn’t even know who half his cabinet is, who’s had the White House Press Corps packed with conspiracy theorists and fruitcakes because they’ll publicly claim he’s tough and strong and virile.

    At least you’d be able to laugh.

    5 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127382

    After the last three months we’ve had, I genuinely didn’t think we’d ever see another “Democrat presidency would be just as bad as Trump” post, but here we are.

    6 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127386

    Honestly the Biden administration would be just as funny, or even funnier. Dems let a senile man lead the world.

    And yet under his lead, there was a competent administration quietly doing pretty good work like investing in the US infrastructure, lowering the cost of insuline, advancing regenerative energies and supporting labour unions. And they did all this without leaking shit about Biden’s health to the press.

    That’s not Ianucci material, that’d be Sorkin. If you can’t see how fucking hilarious a Ianucci depiction of the continuous meltdowns and backstabbing and insanity of Trumpworld would be, well, I recommend watching Veep. Because I am doing that right now and it’s like two sides of one coin.

    4 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127405

    he talked about other countries like in the Middle East that he felt were living too lavishly in luxury and they depended on US involvement there. He was saying they should pay the US more. So back then, he had in mind an international “shakedown/protection money” arrangement, like its a schoolyard or what organized crime did with neighborhood businesses.

    That was back in 1988. He was on Oprah and was talking about Japan’s huge investments in the US as if they were taking over, and he was talking about Kuwait citizens living like kings at the time. (Before Saddam invaded in 1990 but I digress.) He didn’t exactly understand international trade, or even how a trade deficit can work in your favor. He only thought in terms of “protection money”, tariffs, even back then.

    Now we have this:

     

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127416

    Honestly the Biden administration would be just as funny, or even funnier. Dems let a senile man lead the world.

    And yet under his lead, there was a competent administration quietly doing pretty good work like investing in the US infrastructure, lowering the cost of insuline, advancing regenerative energies and supporting labour unions. And they did all this without leaking shit about Biden’s health to the press.

    That’s not Ianucci material, that’d be Sorkin. If you can’t see how fucking hilarious a Ianucci depiction of the continuous meltdowns and backstabbing and insanity of Trumpworld would be, well, I recommend watching Veep. Because I am doing that right now and it’s like two sides of one coin.

    It was a clown show of incompetence. Of course Trump is likely worse because they’re fascists, but the absurdity is pretty much the same.

     

    https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/04/biden-broadband-program-swing-state-frustrations-00175845

     

    Honestly I think societies collapse under this shit. We’ve beome ridiculously incompetent and absurd in Western countries. They literally couldn’t say until he made a fool of himself in the debate that Biden had cognitive deficiencies because you’d be accused of spreading misinformation and being a Russian troll, that’s how fucking stupid they are. Just gaslighting themselves.

  • #127417

    Guys, I can’t tell, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

     

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127422

    Guys, I can’t tell, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

     

    It can be two things!

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #127449

    It was a clown show of incompetence. Of course Trump is likely worse because they’re fascists, but the absurdity is pretty much the same.

     

    https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/04/biden-broadband-program-swing-state-frustrations-00175845%5B/quote%5D

    The broadband infrastructure thing was a bureaucratic disaster, but one that has everything to do with how US government has been built over decades and nothing with Biden’s state of mind. What, that is the only example you could come up with for it being “a clown show of incompetence”? Seriously? With the shit Trump is doing every day?

    I will concede that this kind of shit, a mountain of bureacracy preventing federal funding from being actually used, is exactly the kind of thing that makes people yearn for a Trumpian figure, a man of action who will just make things fucking happen for once. No doubt about that one.

    Jon Stewart recently talked about this whole thing with Ezra Klein on his podcast. It’s very interesting in depicting just how badly the failures are in this area.

    They literally couldn’t say until he made a fool of himself in the debate that Biden had cognitive deficiencies because you’d be accused of spreading misinformation and being a Russian troll,

    I don’t know who your “they” and “you” is in this case, but everybody was talking about it all the time. As evidence by this Daily Show clip (from before the debate):

  • #127459

    What, that is the only example you could come up with for it being “a clown show of incompetence”? Seriously? With the shit Trump is doing every day?

    Dude, Western countries are completely dysfunctional. That includes the shitholes we live in, not just the US. In fact the US is probably better off because they still have a lot of unspoilt nature. If you listen to Dugin’s critique of the West, he’s right about a lot of things. We’re creating a hellish dystopia. Of course Dugin is also insane and he has that “white man bad” stuff in common with Western leftoids. (And he shills for Putin who is worse than us)

     

    So yeah that is also because of those four years of Biden. But also Merkel, Scholz, Rutte, Macron, Bojo, Starmer etc. The whole rotten bunch, they all need to fuck off. So you can point at Trump and say “Now he’s bad!” but that doesn’t mean Biden was somehow good.

     

     

    Unironically I’m starting to think maybe we should all embrace Christianity or something. We’re totally lost and looking for guidance. Or we could base a new society around Greek philosophy, like Heracliteanism or Epicureanism. Or Theravada Buddhism. Almost anything is better than the Western mindrot. (Well outright communism or naziism would be worse)

  • #127472

    And yes they covered up Biden’s cognitive decline. As well as they could anyway.

     

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/30/joe-biden-decline-underreported

     

     

    Really, if you look back at the Biden time and say, well that’s an era of competent government, things just went great during those years…I don’t know what you’re smoking man, but have fun with it.

  • #127475

    And yes they covered up Biden’s cognitive decline. As well as they could anyway.

    If by “they” you mean the White House, of course they did, or tried to. And you linked to an article where journalists are self-questioning whether they fought hard enough to nevertheless draw this into the spotlight, because of course they reported on it. Look at your original post and at what you claimed happened if apparently anyone dared mention his mental state. And did the media let the White House get away with too much in trying to cover up his problems? Maybe. But all of this is still a pretty normal process; hell, it’d happened before with Reagan and to a much greater extent. The point is that during all this, the Biden admin was still doing normal, and often actually pretty good government work and you called that a worse shitshow than Trump right now, which is just as insane as it gets.

    Dude, Western countries are completely dysfunctional.

    And this is a completely different point and I agree with it to an extent – though obviously not entirely, just go to one of the failed states in the world and try to build a life there if you want to know what completely dysfunctional means. But there are a lot of problems that are not being addressed, and this has led to the current state of things in which too many people are opting out of democracy and becoming fascism curious. But there are also a lot of people working on actually making things better and finding a way to switch tracks. There are many, many productive groups you can support if you’re so desparate about the state of affairs instead of just spiralling over extremist news you algorithm feeds you.

    3 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127482

    Probably the most fired-up I’ve ever seen Al Gore:

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127490

    There are many, many productive groups you can support

    Your local gun club?

  • #127502

    Your local gun club?

    Well, that’d be one way to go. I was thinking more along the line of NGOs like Transparency International or one of the ones fighting against climate change. Or local charities, or antifa chapters.

    Probably the most fired-up I’ve ever seen Al Gore:

    3 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127545

    Approval rating:

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-lowest-100-day-approval-rating-80-years/story?id=121165473

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127548

    Approval rating:

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-lowest-100-day-approval-rating-80-years/story?id=121165473%5B/quote%5D

    I’m shocked!!! SHOCKED, I say!!

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127549

    You can do better USA, get it lower.

    4 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127552

    Well, that’d be one way to go. I was thinking more along the line of NGOs like Transparency International or one of the ones fighting against climate change. Or local charities, or antifa chapters.

    Speaking of worthy NGOs, my current favourite is Finanzwende, who are mainly trying to get the rich to pay their taxes.
    Their current chairwoman Anne Brorhilker is a former state attorney who was in charge of the cum ex investigations. Which was this:

    The CumEx-Files is an investigation by a number of European news media outlets into a tax fraud scheme discovered by them in 2017.[1] A network of banks, stock traders, and lawyers had obtained billions from European treasuries through suspected fraud and speculation involving dividend taxes. The five hardest hit countries may have lost at least $62.9 billion.[2] Germany is the hardest hit country, with around $36.2 billion withdrawn from the German treasury.[3] Estimated losses for other countries include at least €17 billion for France, €4.5 billion in Italy, €1.7 billion in Denmark and €201 million for Belgium.[4]

    (wiki)

    Brohilker was successful in investigating and prosecuting this case but she ran into all kinds of walls, either because the system isn’t really built to persecute this kind of crime, or because of politicians actively trying to prevent her from achieving anything. It’s a really frustratring story, and this woman is an absolute hero. She quite her job when the frustration got too bad and went to this NGO to fight the political battle now.

    Her work faced opposition, especially last autumn, when her top superior, NRW Justice Minister Limbach, wanted to split Brorhilker’s Department H, thereby transferring numerous Cum-ex investigations to another prosecutor’s responsibility. Brorhilker fought back internally within the judiciary, and the minister had to withdraw his plan.

    Even eleven years after the first Cum-ex cases became known, politics still has not responded adequately, Brorhilker said in the WDR interview. Even today, there are tax thefts that unfold similarly to Cum-ex deals. According to ZEIT ONLINE, she criticizes the lenient treatment of perpetrators, particularly in Germany. In Germany, there is the “fundamental problem that perpetrators with a lot of money and influence encounter a weak judiciary that cannot handle it.” This leads to the finding: “They hang the small ones, and let the big ones go. (…) Tax evaders, especially if they do it on a large scale, get off much better than welfare cheats in Germany.”

    Brorhilker compared her transition from Cum-ex investigations at the prosecutor’s office to working at Finanzwende with a doctor deciding “not to treat individual patients any longer, but to go into research to develop a therapy, to tackle the problem at its root, so to speak.”

    https://www.her-career.com/en/cum-ex-chief-investigator-leaves-public-prosecutors-office-for-non-governmental-organization/

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127561

    Approval rating:

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-lowest-100-day-approval-rating-80-years/story?id=121165473%5B/quote%5D

    I’m shocked!!! SHOCKED, I say!!

    I go back with him since he bought the NJ Generals in the early 80s. Then came gossip about his wives, girlfriends, hi rises, casinos, Wollman rink, comments about the Central Park 5. There was always news about him. He was out there as “telling it like it is”, and then the reality show on national TV.

    But his “bold” take on politics and his promise to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it, and saying that he would end the Ukraine war in one day, etc. a false reassurance. He said things a LOT of people wanted to hear, he hated Obama being in office, do away with Obamacare, and do away with anything progressive and return to “the good old days”. But his flip flopping now about tariffs is not creating a stable and consistent environment for investors. Who is going to invest long term with this uncertainty?

    And now, voters are finally starting to notice his policies are hurting their bottom line. Shocking!

    • This reply was modified 2 months ago by Al-x.
  • #127570

    If his approval drops below 40 he’s done. They’ll get crushed in the midterms and Vance will lose in 2028.

  • #127571

    Cut off his head and two dipshits will take his place.

    4 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127578

    Easy solution – keep chopping.

    4 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127581

    Santos

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/former-rep-george-santos-sentenced-7-years-prison-rcna202397

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #127586

    And now we have the Gestapo:

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/strengthening-and-unleashing-americas-law-enforcement-to-pursue-criminals-and-protect-innocent-citizens/

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #127587

    Wow. Okay, so we have pretty much carte blanche for racist police violence, the use of military forces as police, and to top it all off, this:

    Sec. 5. Holding State and Local Officials Accountable. The Attorney General shall pursue all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures to enforce the rights of Americans impacted by crime and shall prioritize prosecution of any applicable violations of Federal criminal law with respect to State and local jurisdictions whose officials:
    (a) willfully and unlawfully direct the obstruction of criminal law, including by directly and unlawfully prohibiting law enforcement officers from carrying out duties necessary for public safety and law enforcement; or
    (b) unlawfully engage in discrimination or civil-rights violations under the guise of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives that restrict law enforcement activity or endanger citizens.

    So if you try to do anything about this – or ignore it – as a local official, you will be prosecuted.

    Jesus fucking Christ.

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #127595

    Santos

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/former-rep-george-santos-sentenced-7-years-prison-rcna202397

     

    They always say “be gay, do crime” but then when you do it suddenly liberals want you to go to jail!

  • #127598

    I saw a small preview of this interview on ABC tonight. He still talks in terms of tariffs and this “not letting other countries come in here and make trillions and live like kings off of us”.  So his way of evening things is tariffs and charging more “protection money”.

    I don’t know. Something is off. I remember back in 2016 when he ran against Hilary. Obama said that being POTUS and handling international crisis etc. “This is not entertainment”

    I always heard conspiracy theories like the US is not a democracy. The govt no matter which party still has to answer to huge powerful corporations, billionaires, powerful captains of industry who have millions on their payroll and responsible for huge sectors of the economy, so the government can do only so much. Then again… How can they NOT have a say in anything?

    But these moves by 47 that are shaking things up right now make me wonder… How much of a “democracy” is the US? How much of a say do these oligarchs have? Is a superpower country really going to be determined by elections, the collective votes of the common man on the street?

    If that is the case, and 47 is doing all this in power, then the Dems could have done so much more over the years.

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #127599

    Canada’s answer to US annexation threats and trade war:

    https://apnews.com/article/canada-election-trump-carney-poilievre-861f5b00794355b231ee3f218568949b

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127602

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/30/economy-gdp-q1-trump-tariffs

     

    GDP 0.3 % lower in Q1. That seems pretty damn bad. Trump and the GOP superfucked if the economy shits itself.

  • #127604

    4 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127633

    Arjan Dirkse wrote:

    It is stupid how we limit ourselves with our pious lies. We say nukes are bad so we shouldn’t have them, yet we are protected from invasion by Russia by American nukes. Many now even lament Ukraine giving away its nukes in the 90s.

    NATO was a very good protection for a long time; building our own nuclear arsenal would’ve been nonsense while it worked.
    Right now, we may actually need more defensive capacity of our own, but we do have nukes already in the EU – let’s not forget that the French have some.

    We need to stop with the soft bullshit and just do what is right for us and our own people.

    I hope this is okay to say, it sounds like you’re spiralling a bit there. Maybe time to take a break from politics for a bit.

     



    @arjandirkse
    fellow… How would you like to reboot the Relationship thread ? 🤣🤣

    —————-

    As for Canada and Mexico recent elections and leaders. Must be nice:

    • This reply was modified 2 months ago by Al-x.
    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127648

    Arjan Dirkse wrote:

    It is stupid how we limit ourselves with our pious lies. We say nukes are bad so we shouldn’t have them, yet we are protected from invasion by Russia by American nukes. Many now even lament Ukraine giving away its nukes in the 90s.

    NATO was a very good protection for a long time; building our own nuclear arsenal would’ve been nonsense while it worked.
    Right now, we may actually need more defensive capacity of our own, but we do have nukes already in the EU – let’s not forget that the French have some.

    We need to stop with the soft bullshit and just do what is right for us and our own people.

    I hope this is okay to say, it sounds like you’re spiralling a bit there. Maybe time to take a break from politics for a bit.

     




    @arjandirkse
    fellow… How would you like to reboot the Relationship thread ? 🤣🤣

    —————-

    As for Canada and Mexico recent elections and leaders. Must be nice:

    • This reply was modified 2 months ago by Al-x.

    Ehm this is an old post of mine, I don’t know why you’re quoting it now…but still I think more nukes in Europe would be good. France doesn’t really have a commitment to use nuclear weapons in case say Lithuania or Poland is invaded.

     

    It’s scary of course, but it might be good if Poland and Germany had their own nuclear weapons. (Germany and also the Netherlands are home to some American nuclear weapons but we can’t use them without American permission)

  • #127654

    Kamala Harris spoke out on the first 100 days:

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/kamala-harris/kamala-harris-reemerge-trump-speech-rcna203387

    And a showdown with old money Harvard

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-taking-harvards-tax-exempt-status/story?id=121391407

    • This reply was modified 2 months ago by Al-x.
    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #127689

    It’s times like these I wish Luigi Mangione were free to take a shot at Trump. At least we know he wouldn’t miss.

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127702

    I think it’s interesting that there are so many with opposing views that are part of Trump’s entourage. There’s a lack of coherence. The only coherence seems loyalty to Trump.

     

    For instance Bannon is very anti-China, but Musk has many Chinese connections.

  • #127731

    New tariffs on foreign-produced films, whatever the hell that means.

    Oh and re-opening Alcatraz.

    Yeah, Orange Toddler is on a roll.

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #127736

    Which makes me wonder… If he is doing all these ridiculous stuff (and it’s all out loud) then who is pulling the proverbial strings? Aside from following this Project 2025 manifesto…

    Interesting how everything good is about him, all the bad is a leftover from Biden. Like in 2016, he tried to take credit for the positive economic numbers he inherited from the Obama administration.

    As for not making any effort to bring back the innocent Hispanic man deported to El Salvador: On a side note, I really HOPE all the Spanish speaking communities take note that it could happen to any one of them.

    Kamala Harris gave a speech somewhere about 47’s first 100 days and there was the question of “Where are all the high profile Dems like both Clintons, Gore, the Obamas, etc? Why are they so quiet and not speaking out?” They might be biding their time, letting things go on so the people who made their bed can lay in it, not want to engage in a back and forth on social media (thereby causing a distraction from the damage), or they are not these huge saviors to be taken for granted. Or each of them have their own reasons.

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127836

  • #127850

    There seems to be a complete lack of any effort to stop war between Pakistan and India.

  • #127860

    Not to get panicky, but if this really happens the world could be fucked.

  • #127864

    Apparently there’s a ceasefire which would be great news. We could use some good news.

     

    https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/india-pakistan-operation-sindoor-05-10-25

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #127908

    I’ve tried to give Starmer the benefit of the doubt over a lot of his policymaking decisions given that there are tough choices to be made at the moment, but his comments today about immigration and an “island of strangers” are really unpleasant and I think impossible to justify.

    I don’t know why Labour keep falling into this trap of thinking that to beat the Tories and Reform you have to become more like them, but it’s really disappointing to see such a transparent dogwhistle.

    6 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127910

    Kids in Rotterdam are increasingly armed, with knives but also guns, was reported here. Honestly I believe we’re gearing up for huge societal unrest.

  • #127917

    I’ve tried to give Starmer the benefit of the doubt over a lot of his policymaking decisions given that there are tough choices to be made at the moment, but his comments today about immigration and an “island of strangers” are really unpleasant and I think impossible to justify.

    I don’t know why Labour keep falling into this trap of thinking that to beat the Tories and Reform you have to become more like them, but it’s really disappointing to see such a transparent dogwhistle.

    I think the explanation is either:

    a) he’s a spineless stuffed shirt

    b) he really does think that way.

    Hard to say which is worse really, but ultimately its moot.

    5 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127918

    I saw this and thought of Lorcan:

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #127930

    Exactly what a Liberal would think!

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127944

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/qatars-luxury-jet-donation-poses-significant-security-risks/story?id=121722135

  • #127948

    Re: Starmer and Labour

    It’s accurate that Reform is their enemy, but Labour isn’t going to defeat them by trying to be them. That just hacks off their own support.

    They don’t seem willing to recognise that if you get enough other voters backing them, then they don’t need toxic, right-wing voters which is what Khan and Burnham have done in London and Manchester.

    They need to quit the pie-in-the-sky, ‘we can assert reality’ idiocy.

    1.5m new homes by 2029 – unlikely as there’s not the sites or the people to build them.

    More British social care – will take years, if it ever happens. Banning overseas recruitment is a sledgehammer response to fraud.

    Education – they want less foreign students and more kids studying. Who’s paying for the places then with the cash cow foreigners no longer around? And what is the job reward for study?

    PIP – they keep proving they don’t know how the benefit works to support employment, which in turn aids the economy and tax revenue, has no fraud, or how disability impacts lives. They assume a level of consistency that many disabled would love to have but don’t.

    And all these own goals stem from idiot arrogance. They have to engage with the world they have, not the one they want. Using reality as a politics all-cases escape-out-of-jail-free card, with macho posturing doesn’t count. They have clear, proven alternative routes that are refused because they look less well ‘ard.

    3 users thanked author for this post.
  • #127973

    I think Starmer is more right wing than our fucking imbecile Wilders.

     

    Wilders’s platform is really weird. He’s hardly very right wing, he has attracted many of the old Labor voters and is in favor of many left wing things, like welfare, gay rights etc. He just really really hates Islam (funnily enough because he thinks Muslims won’t accept Dutch progressive values. Yeah that’s real right wing)

  • #127992

    It’s accurate that Reform is their enemy, but Labour isn’t going to defeat them by trying to be them. That just hacks off their own support.

    They don’t seem willing to recognise that if you get enough other voters backing them, then they don’t need toxic, right-wing voters which is what Khan and Burnham have done in London and Manchester.

    It’s the fucking same everywhere, isn’t it? Our Labour Party tried to emulate the AfD when it comes to migration and got the worst result they ever had in their history of German elections, but there are no hints whatsoever that they have recognised their mistakes.

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128007

    Tolerance for LGBT lifestyles really dropped quite strongly in the Netherlands in 2024, especially among the younger generation.

     

    edit: The link with the research seems to be removed weirdly enough, however it can still be found on internet archive.

     

    https://web.archive.org/web/20250126230824/https://eenvandaag.avrotros.nl/panels/opiniepanel/alle-uitslagen/item/acceptatie-lhbti-op-dieptepunt-minder-dan-de-helft-van-de-gemeenschap-vindt-dat-het-goed-gaat/

     

    2nd edit: Huh, I also found a link that said acceptance for gay people went up. But this might not be true for other LGBT groups. This poll was only conducted among people older of 18 years or older.

     

    https://nltimes.nl/2024/11/07/acceptance-homosexuality-increased-decrease-seen-regarding-lgbtiqa-groups

     

     

  • #128023

    I’m happy with the new pope. He seems to strike a balance between the progressives in the church and the more conservative people. Maybe he can get some things done.

     

    I’ve seen some speculation that he was chosen as an anti-Trump.

  • #128040

    https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/16/trumps-middle-east-trip-saudi-arabia-qatar-uae-go-all-out.html

    It is getting beyond corrupt and ridiculous.

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #128041

    Oh, it can get worse:

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/kristi-noem-wants-migrants-to-compete-for-citizenship-on-hunger-games-style-reality-show/

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #128042

    Between DOGE, DEI, federal cuts, this plane, fast tracking Afrikaaners to asylums, ICE, deportations, Zelenskyy, flip flopping on tariffs, birthright citizenship.

    • This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Al-x.
    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128056

    The plane and, how the UAE has just invested two billion dollars into Trump’s “stablecoin”. Trump is turning the US into an open kleptocracy at a really impressive pace. I mean, wow. Just wow. “What should I have done? Not accepted it?”
    Yeah, that’s what state officials are generally expected to do when they’re offered gifts be people who are impacted by their decisions. Not accept them. It’s so funny that Trump doesn’t even have an idea that a world exists in which people think that’d be the right thing to do.

    3 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128060

    Ísn’t it illegal for the US president to accept such gifts? Or is it more of an unwritten rule thing?

  • #128061

    Meh, rules only matter when enforced and no one’s enforcing them.

    5 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128064

    I think Syria is going to sign a peace deal with Israel like Jordan and Egypt have, or become neutral towards Israel like Qatar and Turkey. That would mean the only enemy in the region for Israel would be Lebanon. (And Iran and Yemen but they’re further away)

  • #128065

    Ísn’t it illegal for the US president to accept such gifts? Or is it more of an unwritten rule thing?

    Nope, ‘s not illegal. For it to be illegal, you’d have to prove corruption, and in order to do that you’d have to have a written document saying “I, Donald Trump, gave a number of great trade deals to Qatar because they gave a me a fucking awesome plane.” Anything short of that will mean fuck all.

    But he is claiming that the plane will belong to his Presidential Library when he’s not President anymore. Which will presumably loan it to him indefinitely but somehow take care of any costs of upkeep, or something. And now he’s been auctioning a dinner with him amongst investors into his cryptocoin thing. This should all be illegal, but somehow it’s not.

  • #128066

    That’s fucking crazy.

     

    If Trump keeps doing schemes to enrich himself from being president he could become a trillionaire.

  • #128074

    “Schemes”  – looks like he wants to attack the birthright citizenship so he can indiscriminately use ICE to deport by the masses, do a fast track granting asylum to certain refugees he says are escaping a genocide, and sell citizenship to the very elite and rich with this special gold card plan. In time the country becomes some special “homeland” because the “undesireables” have been “replaced”.

     

     

     

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #128075

    the “undesireables” have been “replaced”.

    OMG Al-X said the Great Replacement is real!

  • #128208

    the “undesireables” have been “replaced”.

    OMG Al-X said the Great Replacement is real!

    That’s not what I said. I know of the actual theory:

    https://immigrationforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Replacement-Theory-Explainer-1122.pdf

    What I posted was an apparent scheme or plan that might play out in the years ahead.

    Did this apparent “scheme” happen before in other countries?

    Arjan fellow… I really want you to reboot my old Relationship Thread and make it great again.

  • #128343

     

    Interesting that Rome at the end was just completely idiotic. And misunderstanding the realities of warfare.

     

    There’s a similarity there with our time. We can’t really face what is confronting us.

  • #128392

    And I don’t know about Bernie being younger. I think there’s an argument to be made that Bernie would’ve beat Trump in 2016 (and in 2024) and the problem isn’t with the general electorate, but rather with the fucking wimp-ass Democrats.

    Getting back to this: What might have been. But at the time, Obama finished his 2nd and now it would be Hilary’s turn. Had it been Bernie vs (now 47)…Those years were crucial as four Supreme Court seats were ushered in and it could have been 4 Dem backed judges and things like Roe v Wade etc. etc. etc.

    “Wimp ass Dems” is true. I might even blame Obama for his cheap shot at that dinner speech. Bin Laden had just been found and shot, and Obama at the dinner said something about “if you were President” etc. That might have given him ideas:

    https://www.newsweek.com/obama-trump-white-house-correspondents-dinner-2011-roast-bin-laden-raid-2063833

    But Dems are to blame and so is US voter mentality. It’s both really.

  • #128407

    Apparently Jordan Bardella, who takes over the candidacy of Le Pen’s party now she can’t run, is less pro-Russian than Le Pen herself. Which gives some hope France will continue to support Ukraine if the RN wins the next presidential election. The party might turn on this issue like Meloni has. France also signed a defense treaty with Poland.

     

    https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2025/01/03/the-french-far-right-s-slow-re-alignment-on-ukraine_6736661_5.html

  • #128408

    If Trump keeps doing schemes to enrich himself from being president he could become a trillionaire.

    He’s actually very bad at business, so I don’t know, but yeah, the way he’s setting things up will probably propel him into a new stratosphere of being rich. Which in turn means it’ll potentially make it easy for the Trump family to hold on to the presidency, which will alow them to further enrich themselves.

  • #128411

    I don’t see any of his sons becoming president. Ivanka could try, but I’m not sure she would win.

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #128415

    I don’t see any of his sons becoming president. Ivanka could try, but I’m not sure she would win.

    I agree. The MAGA cult is centered on Trump himself. When he dies, the whole house of cards will collapse. None of the kids have the same level of charisma as daddy. Additionally, Trump makes sure to keep the spotlight solely on himself. Due to his narcissism, he has done nothing to develop a successor. When he finally dies, there will be a power vacuum where everyone will be rushing to be the new leader. The party is going to splinter and the infighting will be a spectacle to behold.

    1 user thanked author for this post.
    Ben
  • #128417

    I don’t see any of his sons becoming president. Ivanka could try, but I’m not sure she would win.

    I agree. The MAGA cult is centered on Trump himself. When he dies, the whole house of cards will collapse. None of the kids have the same level of charisma as daddy. Additionally, Trump makes sure to keep the spotlight solely on himself. Due to his narcissism, he has done nothing to develop a successor. When he finally dies, there will be a power vacuum where everyone will be rushing to be the new leader. The party is going to splinter and the infighting will be a spectacle to behold.

    And this is a big part of the problems the Republicans have made for themselves down the line, they allowed Trump to hollow them out over the last 8 years and rebuild them as a machine to funnel him cash at the expense of just about everything else.

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128418

    Yeah, the only bright spot with dictatorial bastards is they rarely do succession planning, North Korea being a rare exception.

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128428

    Well, and Hafez al-Assad had it all figured out until his older son was killed in a car accident.

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128458

    Jake Tapper now making the rounds with this “Biden’s dementia was covered up” book, but I didn’t hear him before the election. In retrospect it’s easy to point fingers but he was guilty too.

  • #128467

    There’s a pretty funny situation in politics in my country right now. The government here is becoming more critical of Israel. They want the EU to revise some treaty they have with Israel. Wilders’s party is part of the government and Wilders himself is seething over this criticism of Israel on twitter but he can’t stop it, other than pulling the plug on this government, but he won’t do that because if there are new elections he is bound to lose. So all he can do is angry tweets.

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #128483

    47 vs The Old Money institution. (Where is my popcorn?)

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-bars-harvard-enrolling-international-students/story?id=122084417

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #128486

    IMG_8218

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128489

    I mentioned before about both the Dem party and voters in general.

    The Dems never developed a promising successor after Obama. It was like after Obama, the Dems squeezed out Bernie because to them it was Hilary’s turn. But apparently, the voters remembered her and new voters who grew up in the 90s with the Clintons in the WH were turned off.

    47 resented Obama, and his being outspoken in challenging the birth, Harvard admission, and Obamacare just emboldened the rest of them. The voters who “wanted their country back” liked him because he hated what they hated, the knew him from his TV show, and him talking tough about things like the border wall, making Mexico pay for it, etc.

    That book I’ve been reading (Sum of Us) just shows how some voters vote against themselves just to spite not just black people, but Hispanic, liberals, LGBTQ+, and other minority groups. Even though they would be better off with the economic packages proposed by the Dems they still rally against it like they dismissed national healthcare as “Obamacare”, “socialism”. (Now there is news about proposed cuts to Medicare and SNAP benefits).

    Not going to rehash what’s already been covered before about voters getting surprised that they were connected to the sweeping cuts and de funding from Day 1 or the Hispanic voters situation of deportation. But some of them voted MAGA to f over the people they didn’t like, but they didn’t think it would affect them and now they see they are getting more than what they bargained for.

  • #128492

    So Labour is no longer revealing membership numbers to its NEC. Which I’m sure is fine, there can’t be any bad reason they’d suddenly stop being transparent on that right? Not like there’s been a sudden cratering of membership numbers?

    Also, probably entirely unrelated:

    Revealed: Labour’s financial woes as party unable to balance books this year

    Labour is unable to balance its books this year, and will need “at least £4 million” to fight elections in 2026, LabourList can reveal.

    According to a document seen by LabourList, the party is operating under a “recovery plan” for 2025, with the aim of bringing finances to a “planned but manageable deficit”.

    The document says that Labour is in a “difficult financial position” with a staff pay freeze and strict vacancy controls in place as it seeks to stabilise its finances.

    It reads: “The Party is also maximising income at every opportunity and working to rebuild our finances.

    Weird, given there doesn’t seem to be an end of rich donors giving Starmer clothes, glasses and private boxes at Arsenal…

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128501

    IMG_8298

    4 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128563

    Trump seems to be changing his mind on Putin to some degree…I guess this could be good news, or at least “not-that-bad news”. News could be worse. But as long as the war continues, I am hesitant to call it good news.

     

    https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-absolutely-crazy/

  • #128566

    Just some pics online of what you might be in for should ICE deport you to El Salvador:

     

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #128568

    Read a bit about Saul Alinsky and how one of his tactics is to use an enemy’s rules against him. Like if some public institution has a rule to reply to every letter, you can overwhelm them by sending 30,000 letters and collapse the insitution.

     

    This is true if an institution is literally honour bound by their rules, but I don’t think it will always work. Sometimes you just have to suspend those rules to deal with these obnoxious agents that seek your demise. If society is overwhelmed by these circumstances, you are allowed to do what is necessary to make it out.

     

    Those are just the trade-offs: the greater good must come first, the democratic system, the will of the people, the ability of the system to perform what they were voted for to perform. You can’t let hostile agents undermine those.

  • #128572

    A father in the Netherlands has murdered his children, along with himself. There was a memorial where people laid down dolls for the kids. And then some people filmed themselves stealing some of the dolls and making fun of the situation.

     

    We’re truly up against some incredible evil.

  • #128580

    Arjan, may I suggest that you spend some time away from your computer/smartphone? Go outside, take a walk, get some ice cream, and chill out a bit.

    6 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128613

    Honestly it is clear to me society is preparing for an orgy of violence…or Putin might take over first. Whichever happens first. You just see it in the aggression in the streets, all the stabbings, the angry yelling, the behavior of people. Something is broken. Badly.

     

    You might say “just don’t go on the internet lol” but it is in the streets. It’s getting bad. I mean recently we had guys openly walking around with automatic weapons in the city where I live and shooting at a home. It is gang related, but that is spinning out of control. There are also drug gangs targeting homes with explosives. Last year there was a big explosion causing six deaths. We’re turning into a shithole country.

  • #128617

    Arjan… please reboot my old thread to refresh yourself and hopefully get out of this “doom and gloom” phase you seem to be in.

    Make “The Relationship Thread” great again!!!

    ——————

    I get soundbite postings on my social media feed. For a while, it’s been complaints of some saying “This is not what I voted for” and the rebuttals of “Yes it is. You just didn’t expect it to get back to you”. It all just takes me back to some of my history studies and the book I am reading.

    In the US it seemed to me there always been this “At least I got one over on” somebody else consolation. I read once that in the old South there were these rich estates with plantations and they were slave owners. But the rest of them who weren’t slave owners still fought in the Civil War to maintain the status quo that they at the very least had one over on slaves. The South lost but then came the Jim Crow laws. Interestingly, with more immigration, there came people who weren’t “black” nor “white”, so there was this jockeying for position that is still here.

    Some Spanish speaking communities wanted to be accepted like the Irish and Italians groups, but it didn’t happen. When they see now that they voted for their own deportation, some realize now that although they aren’t African American/black, they aren’t white either and to MAGA, they were never liked just tolerated for votes.

    Some Asians were attacked during Covid and were blamed for it. And they wanted to do away with Affirmative Action and DEI, and found out that when it was gone, it actually lowered Asian enrollment to elite schools and increased legacy admissions. (Some Asian applicants spoke Mandarin fluently, 4.10 GPA, perfect SAT, active member of top school clubs and still lost seats to applicants who got in by family connections.)

    They just don’t unite for their own reasons. Voter mentality is something else…

    • This reply was modified 1 month ago by Al-x.
    • This reply was modified 4 weeks, 1 day ago by Al-x.
    3 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128621

    I mean recently we had guys openly walking around with automatic weapons in the city where I live and shooting at a home.

    Yeah, that’ll dampen the mood, one has to admit.

    But it’s worth pointing out again that the violent crime rate has gone down over the last decades, including in the Netherlands. It’s still way safer right now than it was in the nineties. It just doesn’t feel that way, and that’s due to media, not to what’s actually going on outside.

    4 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128625

    Eh I’ll try to chill out. I think lots of things suck here right now, but that’s just the way it is. Can’t really do much about it.

     

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128626

    Arjan: here’s some good stuff to think about:

    GOOD NEWS FROM NETHERLANDS

    GOOD NEWS FROM GERMANY

    GOOD NEWS FROM BELGIUM

    • This reply was modified 1 month ago by njerry.
    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128631

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/venezuelans-tps-fear-deported-supreme-court-ruling-rcna208716

    I see this from yesterday and last year they had a celebration and cultural dancing party in Florida for MAGA because they were protected from being deported (The TPS came from the Biden admin). And now that it is gone, they feel “beyond betrayed”. But they knew already about how other similar groups have been looked at and treated and felt that they were immune and none of it applied to them. Truth is, some of the different groups/factions voted for each other’s deportation. They never formed a united coalition. I won’t mention names , but it is as a comedienne I saw who said “the X feel they are better because they speak better English, Y feels they got one over because their skin is lighter, but real MAGA says “WTF is the difference? Kick them all out!” None of that mattered.

    The more you read about these “rude awakenings” from voters who didn’t realize before how interconnected things are, maybe this is what they deserved and needed to happen to wake up. But it is ignorance. When you saw at the time when the news was all about climate change and global warming, some who just clicked a few links on Google and felt they were on par to debate climatologists and also during the pandemic regarding Covid, debating seasoned researchers and doctors. It is just this:

    Don’t like tirades, but it is things like this is mostly why the US can’t have nice things .

    2 users thanked author for this post.
  • #128635

    “Good news from Belgium” sounds like it could be the first part of a sarcastic joke.

     

    Kidding…I appreciate it njerry.

    1 user thanked author for this post.
  • #128649

    The plot thickens:

    https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/trump-admin-live-updates-trump-extends-deadline-50/?id=122189223

  • #128651

    Israel just keeps going with this bullshit…they’re building new West Bank settlements.

     

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1j5954edlno

  • #128694

    I’m honestly pretty relaxed, but I think politics right now, and our countries in general, are quite absurd. It has a vibe of total mindless bullshit, like the Soviet Union must have been around the time of its collapse. I believe it’s quite possible we’re also nearing collapse, although it could take decades – or it could be tomorrow. I think you just need a tiny push to let it come down. Still I’m kind of resigned to the idea that I might not live a very long life. It’s always been like that, good times are followed by bad times, wars just happen. It happens to the people in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Sudan, in Ethiopia, in Nigeria, so now it could happen here.

     

    Honestly the writing is on the wall. Russia is doing better than us economically, and we’ve sanctioned them to hell and back, which hurt our own economies. We’re the mister Bean of the world, kind of funny, but pathetic in reality.

  • #128695

    TACO gets a whole new meaning:

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-lashes-viral-taco-trade-meme-stand/story?id=122323324

    1 user thanked author for this post.
Viewing 100 replies - 1,901 through 2,000 (of 2,126 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Skip to toolbar