I wonder who’ll be next week’s Prime Minister?
Politics and Current Affairs
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US military strike against Venezuela; Maduro captured
This is completely insane. Not that we didn’t know it was coming, but… it’s just such utterly crazy shit.
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I think they’re comparable to the CDA generally speaking, but the current government is from the more extremist wing of the party. Merkel was from the left wing (which is why she got rid of Merz, who was a rival and already peddling racist narratives), and pushed him out of politics completely) and Merz and his people are kind of taking revenge on everything Merkel has established in her 16 years.
OK, thanks for the explanation.
I believe you once posted some quotes by Horst Seehofer, who was in the CSU, which were really racist. I don’t think the CDA has this problem. Our Christian parties are a bit more leftist. (Except the SGP who are very conservative protestants, theocratic in fact.)
I think CDA has gotten more leftist over the last two decades. As well as the Christenunie, another protestant political party, I think you can say they are really on the left side of the spectrum, except for some points which directly impede on their Christian beliefs like abortion and euthanasia. (I mean Christenunie is on th left, CDA is more centrist)
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Germany is well on its way to becoming a fascist country.
Again?
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Germany is well on its way to becoming a fascist country.
Again?
Maybe it’ll work out better this time?
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Next on the list: Greenland and Nigeria
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It’s why they kneecapped Bernie to boost Hilary. He would have at least tried to change the game.
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The number of Dems who’s reaction to the abduction of Maduro has been to complain that Trump didn’t go through the correct process. No question of how it’s morally wrong. It disgusts me.
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Not true unfortunately, the Americans aren’t buffoons, they are a very scary military superpower.
It’s funny right now seeing Europeans say they can confront the US when we’re dependent in every way imaginable. Well it would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.
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Soft diplomacy is something Trump and MAGA simply do not understand. “Root beer doctrine” has always been a tool the US has used and had in place and was pretty widely implemented. Yet, Trump and his idiots have destroyed decades, if not a century plus, of soft diplomacy in a year.
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Russia finds out too late that having kompromat only works on an individual susceptible to shame and voters who care about it.
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Russia finds out too late that having kompromat only works on an individual susceptible to shame and voters who care about it.
Even if Russia releases it, Trump and the MAGATS will just say it’s AI slop fakery.
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If they cared enough about it to feel a denial was needed, perhaps but the Epstein Files say it will not be.
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Both are true. Often stupid, high-handed and arrogant but with a great many guns, bombs and bullets, plus a trigger-happy tendency.
Yeah, the current US gov is an impressive lesson on how you shouldn’t be less afraid of stupid, incompetent people.
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When ISIS formed in Iraq, I thought it was awful of course, and the people were stupid for joining it. Still I think I understand now that when your country is destroyed like Iraq was things like these are unavoidable. Young men turn to terrible violence. It doesn’t even matter very much what the political goals are, they are just hungry for violence. Some people may have claimed that this was just something violent Muslims did, and I think I was susceptible to such Islamophobic sentiments, but it is human. It is just what happens when society collapses (or is detroyed in the case of Iraq), no matter the sadness the violence will cause. Some politically extreme group liek ISIS becomes to outlet for violence for frustrated men.
There is a Russian blogger called Dmitri Orlov, who turned into a Putinist, but he said some things on the collapse of soceity and its effects, things he observed in Russia in the 90s, that I think are correct. Men in particular go crazy when this happens. Women cope pretty well, they just do whatever is necessary, they work, they try to cope as best as possible, but men kinda go crazy, especially young men (not all of them of course, but it happens frequently). They become violent and obsessive. I think this is true.
I think there is increasing dysfunction in society here in the Netherlands and I’m noticing an uptick in aggression when I’m outside. People acting without regard for others, acting crazy in traffic, etc
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What Musk is claiming as “free speech”.
“Pictures of teenage girls and children were altered to show them wearing swimwear, leading experts to say some of the content could be categorised as child sexual abuse material.
Some users began to demand to see bruising on the bodies of the women, and for blood to be added to the images. Women were shown tied up, gagged and shot.”
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There is a Russian blogger called Dmitri Orlov, who turned into a Putinist, but he said some things on the collapse of soceity and its effects, things he observed in Russia in the 90s, that I think are correct. Men in particular go crazy when this happens. Women cope pretty well, they just do whatever is necessary, they work, they try to cope as best as possible, but men kinda go crazy, especially young men (not all of them of course, but it happens frequently). They become violent and obsessive. I think this is true.
It’s certainly a part of why the AfD is so successfull in East Germany. People there had the floor pulled from under their feet; after the reunification many lost their jobs, companies and commonalities were sold cheaply to West German investors, and they were told to erase the last fifty years of their history as worthless.
Turns out that all had some long-term effects.
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Why Trump’s Venezuela invasion spells doom for Canada’s trade deal – CTV News
U.S. President Donald Trump recently announced major American oil companies will invest US$100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s energy sector in the wake of Washington’s military takeover of Caracas.
Now, with the largest oil reserves ensconced in American possession and the administration eyeing yet another military takeover of resource-rich Greenland, this makes it even more likely, not less, that the American strongman walks away from forthcoming Canada-U.S.-Mexico-Agreement (CUSMA) negotiations.
Formerly the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the pillar of regional economic integration for more than three decades could now be sunset by the spring of 2026. The president continues to steamroll western democracies, all the while weakening global safeguards that have undergirded international norms in his wake.
The White House continues to strip nation states of their vast wealth like locusts. North American ingenuity and openness has been the envy of the globe allowing Canada, Mexico, and the United States to reach meteoric heights, powering technological innovations along with an unmatched manufacturing base.
Now, with Trump’s metamorphosis to autocrat complete, all of that will soon fall to ruin beginning with the region’s signature trade compact. Even before America’s military lambasting of western powers, the twice-impeached president was already telegraphing a U.S. exit from the prized agreement.
During a recent interview with the New York Times, Trump was asked what could potentially limit his global powers. The former reality television personality frighteningly retorted: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.” He went on to add, “”I don’t need international law…”
These remarks are another unmistakable guidepost that global treaties, norms, and safeguards are of no consequence to the commander-in-chief. Only guided by narcissistic aims and desires, the world is now consumed with dread, waiting in horrid anticipation of what nation or leader will be marked for annihilation next.
CUSMA on life support
Canada, America’s largest trading partner, was put on notice back in January when Trump was sworn in to a second term. The president made no secret that the Great White North should no longer enjoy national sovereignty but fall under American hegemony. Not wishing to unleash military hard power to enact subservience, the White House signalled economic force to bring a century’s old friend and ally to its knees.
Debilitating tariffs laid the groundwork and now with CUSMA seemingly on life-support, the Trump administration is hoping such a seismic blow to Ottawa will force the nation to capitulate to its desires.
According to a report from the Washington-based think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), economists largely agree that NAFTA benefited North America’s economies. Regional trade increased sharply over the treaty’s first two decades, from roughly US$290 billion in 1993 to more than US $1.1 trillion in 2016. Cross-border investment also surged, with U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) stock in Mexico increasing in that period from US $15 billion to more than US $100 billion.
Moreover, the report states: “In the years since NAFTA, trade between the United States and its North American neighbors more than tripled, growing more rapidly than U.S. trade with the rest of the world. Canada and Mexico are the two largest destinations for U.S. exports, accounting for more than one-third of the total.”
Canada specifically saw strong gains in cross-border investment in the NAFTA era: Since 1993, U.S. and Mexican investments in Canada have tripled. U.S. investment, which accounts for more than half of Canada’s FDI stock, grew from US $70 billion in 1993 to more than US $368 billion in 2013.
Additionally, agriculture, in particular, saw a boost. Canada is the leading importer of U.S. agricultural products, and Canadian agricultural trade with the United States has more than tripled since 1994, as did Canada’s total agriculture exports to NAFTA partners. Yet, as the CFR document report points out, perhaps to its detriment, Canada became more dependent on trade with the United States, relying on its southern neighbour for 75 per cent of its exports.
Canada’s dangerous trade dependence
Other high-income countries tend to be much more diversified, rarely relying on a single partner for more than 20 per cent. Of course, Canada has always shared a special relationship vis-a-vis the U.S. In fact, American presidents have long shared warm relationships with Canadian prime ministers, but Trump has not hesitated to use this dependence as leverage, perennially threatening economic hardships on Ottawa if they do not comply with concessions.
Now, the once-great partnership and the signature trading pact that has powered the economy, on both sides of the border, is not only in jeopardy, but so too is Canada’s very independence. Trump is clumsily and haphazardly restructuring the global world order.
Yesterday it was Venezuela; tomorrow Greenland; after that, Canada. The first shot across the bow will most certainly be the end of CUSMA. Trump will take on the arduous task of trying to consume a nation that is both ill-fitted and ill-suited for his MAGA ideology. One can only hope (or not) that he does not choke on it in the process.
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Labour have adjusted the digital ID so it’ll be an option instead the mandatory route they were going for on work checks.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/13/government-rolls-back-digital-identity-card-plans
I think they should have gone with it as an option from the start. Too many people go for the hard sell, politicians seem particularly susceptible, then express surprise when it fails. Going with the softer approach might pay greater dividends.
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Just checking in guys. Hope you’re all well.
Hey, remember when some of us on the old forums were accused of Trump Derangement Syndrome?
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Despite the world being madder than ever, dog and cat pics on social media are a surprisingly effective mitigation against it all.
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Despite the world being madder than ever, dog and cat pics on social media are a surprisingly effective mitigation against it all.
I go to a cat cafe here sometimes. I swear it’s better than a month of zen meditation.
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Will the Democrats do the right thing?
Or will enough defer to their Republican masters and keep it all fucked up?
The U.S. government is nearing the brink of a partial shutdown by the end of the week after federal immigration agents shot and killed a U.S. citizen in Minnesota on Saturday, the second such incident this month.
The Senate is set to vote this week on a massive House-passed $1.2 trillion package to fund the Department of Homeland Security, along with a wide swath of government, before the Jan. 30 deadline. But the shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis is now threatening to derail the funding package as a growing chorus of Democrats warn they will oppose it unless funding for the Department of Homeland Security is stripped out.
“Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE. I will vote no,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in a statement on Saturday night.
“Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included,” he said.
The funding package needs 60 votes to overcome the filibuster and pass the Senate. Republicans hold a 53-47 vote majority in the Senate, meaning Democratic support will be needed to pass the measure. Of the 47, two are independents who caucus with Democrats.
…More in link…
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Trump news at a glance: Pretti killing a ‘wake-up call’ say Obamas as Clinton urges Americans to speak out The Guardian
Two Democratic ex-leaders warn core American values are under assault – key US politics stories from Sunday 25 January at a glance
Democratic ex-presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have spoken out against the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old nurse in Minneapolis, the second person to be shot dead by federal immigration officers in the city this month.
In a statement released on Sunday, Obama and his wife, Michelle, described the killing of Alex Pretti as “a heartbreaking tragedy” and “a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault”.
“For weeks now people across the country have been rightly outraged by the spectacle of masked ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] recruits and other federal agents acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city,” they said.
Bill Clinton joined the call in a post on X, saying the US is facing a historic moment that will shape it for years to come. He urged Americans to speak out and “show that our nation still belongs to we the people”.
… More in link …
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The insanity of the right-wing justification machine is really hard to believe. It’s basically, he shouted at these guys and had a really aggressive attitude. So obviously we had to execute him, I mean, that’s what you do with people who are shouting at you in the street, isn’t it?
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In a statement released on Sunday, Obama and his wife, Michelle, described the killing of Alex Pretti as “a heartbreaking tragedy” and “a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault”.
Fucking finally. Man.
As for Clinton “joining this on X”, fuck you, we aren’t forgetting Epstein over this.
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Obama’s refusal to prosecute anyone over Iraq and insistence on bipartisanship is a huge part of why the US is in this position, so he can shut the fuck up unless he apologises for that first.
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Obama’s refusal to prosecute anyone over Iraq and insistence on bipartisanship is a huge part of why the US is in this position, so he can shut the fuck up unless he apologises for that first.
Unfortunately, “taking the high road” means jack shit to Republicans.
Michelle Obama said, “When they go low, we go high”. No, when they go low, you kick them in the fucking face. That, they’ll understand.
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Obama’s refusal to prosecute anyone over Iraq and insistence on bipartisanship is a huge part of why the US is in this position, so he can shut the fuck up unless he apologises for that first.
I really fucking hope they understand this time that just turning around and forgetting any of this happened isn’t a choice. There needs to be a true fucking reckoning, and if the Democrats fuck that up, they’ll never recover.
Just like the US has never recovered from there being no reckoning for the Secession.
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Obama’s refusal to prosecute anyone over Iraq and insistence on bipartisanship is a huge part of why the US is in this position, so he can shut the fuck up unless he apologises for that first.
I really fucking hope they understand this time that just turning around and forgetting any of this happened isn’t a choice. There needs to be a true fucking reckoning, and if the Democrats fuck that up, they’ll never recover.
Just like the US has never recovered from there being no reckoning for the Secession.
I have no faith in the Democrats to do this without a complete change of leadership at the top. The senior Dems love ICE and love deporting brown people, they just don’t want it being so out in the public eye.
For instance, they voted to say thank you to ICE last year, they’ve consistently voted to increase ICE’s budget, Obama set up the facility that put kids in cages and Biden kept it open even as the latter used it as a cudgel against Trump’s first run. Obama deported more people than Bush, and Biden than Trump did in his first presidency…
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Doing the Democrat classic of being reasonable to a raving loon.
It doesn’t change how dumb it is but was that before the news of the assault / murder attempt on Omar elsewhere?
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Walz has been increasingly disappointing over the past month or so.
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I don’t think democrats will get very far with an overly vengeful agenda. But some lefties will only be satisfied if they start hanging republicans.
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I don’t think democrats will get very far with an overly vengeful agenda. But some lefties will only be satisfied if they start hanging republicans.
I’m kinda at that point.
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Exactly, there will be voters who demand just retribution.
The family who lost members to ICE or a random mass shooting, a family who lost a mother to a deadly pregnancy that was blocked from abortion despite it killing them both, people who vaxxed their kids but still saw them hit terribly by measles.
UK and european politicians aren’t great but they are nowhere near the too many psychopaths in US politics.
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You and I are far away from it Arjan, if Dutch paramilitary forces were shooting people in the street you’d be posting differently. The London riots a decade back? Due to the cops wrongly shooting a man dead.
Plus, in those scenarios I described above, further up the thread, each one is due to decisions made and legislation passed by politicians. Being elected isn’t an all cases pass on accountability, if a politcian brings in law that kills people they have to brought up on it.
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I think we have a very limited view of how life is in the US. It’s not the cultural confection they export and a lot of what has gone wrong has been so for a long time. It’s coming to a head now, but the general attitudes behind it are much older, probably back to the early 90s when you have Gingrich talking of war and the democrats as enemies. That’s not the attitude of someone willing to share a country.
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There won’t be another US civil war, it’ll be more like N. Ireland’s troubles amped up to the max. Very messy, bloody and chaotic.
The problem is how do you forge a practical compromise with a load of people who scorn compromise and empathy as weakness?
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There won’t be another US civil war, it’ll be more like N. Ireland’s troubles amped up to the max. Very messy, bloody and chaotic.
The problem is how do you forge a practical compromise with a load of people who scorn compromise and empathy as weakness?
Exactly.
To show you how complex this is:
I live in Texas, a “red” state. But I also live in the Houston metropolitan area. Houston is the fourth largest city in the US, and it is a solidly “blue” city and has been for decades. I’m sure this is true of other states, and the blue/red aspects may be reversed.
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IIRC the only state that has more democrat voters then Texas is California.
It’s also the only state with more republican voters too
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I am alright with prosecuting the real criminals, like Trump, those people in ICE who shot people, etc…but you have to watch out not to make 50 % of the population your enemy.
Prosecuting the criminals is what I am talking about. Because the Progressives in the US have never done that, and look where it’s gotten them. They let Trump and his people get away with everything last time, and here he is again. They let Bush and Cheney get away with their war crime lies, and thus we got Trump.
And you really can take this back to the Secession. The Southern States can celebrate their hero cult and go on about Southern Pride because back then, Lincoln didn’t hang their leaders and generals.
Sometimes, there has to be a reckoning. But there probably won’t be. And that is what actually will lead into the abyss. I mean, look how awesome it was for the peace in Germany that they put Hitler in jail for only nine months after the Bierkeller-Putsch. Really made sure that everybody remained calm and nothing bad ever happened afterwards.
I have no faith in the Democrats to do this without a complete change of leadership at the top. The senior Dems love ICE and love deporting brown people, they just don’t want it being so out in the public eye.
Yeah, absolutely. They so badly need a complete change of leadership – and the party base knows it, too. ‘s still unlikely to happen, unfortunately.
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IIRC the only state that has more democrat voters then Texas is California.
It’s also the only state with more republican voters too
That’s why redistricting was a huge thing in both states last year.
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