villakram

Perhaps, or maybe I live here and see the discussions that are occurring. They are different in tenor to those occurring in the UK, e.g., "woke" has been a term of common usage over here for a long time, whereas it only arrived over there with the Brexit British culture brigade. Let's think of the gun debate. No, absolutely none, zero chance new gun laws are to be allowed as any slippage is an inch given and they will take a mile. This is a debate we are all familiar with and most of us shake our heads at the senselessness of it. Polling of Americans by pollsters from across the spectrum reveal that a large majority of Americans (and even NRA members) favor enhanced gun control legislation. Apparently, doesn't matter a jot. Now, see the culture war in this light and appreciate what is going on. It's obviously senseless and straight-up shameful, but it is a well worn strategy that has born previous success. Hence, the identification of the trans-rights issue as an inch. None of this is helped by the social media world we live in where for every hair-brained fear someone on the right has or is told about, there is someone on the left who actually thinks that way and shouts lots about it online... and vice-versa.

I thought you'd be happy now that the long serving Prince of Wales is King?

Wonderful Monarchy you lot have. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/ex-uk-leader-boris-johnson-nominates-father-knighthood-report-2023-03-06/ " Former British prime minister Boris Johnson has nominated his father Stanley for a knighthood in the list of honours he can grant as an outgoing leader, the Times newspaper reported on Monday, drawing accusations of cronyism." "As prime minister, Johnson in 2020 elevated his brother Jo Johnson to the House of Lords, the upper chamber of parliament, where he has a seat for life." Please read topics before you post - It's becomng quite common for people to post stories that have already been posted (like this story 9 whole posts previously)

Speech laws are all the rage in the modern world. The political left opened this box, reactions and responses are inevitable. Much like guns, it is very unfortunate how rare and infrequent things are latched onto and the only discussion occurring are w.r.t. to these. K-8 are up to typically age 14, so clearly there will be emerging issues with teens going through puberty. There are very few people/teachers actually against treating a 10-14 yr old with compassion and understanding... we are not allowed to talk about that though. One hopes this culture war stuff abates in coming years.

Personal attacks, charming. Language is not universal, it is fundamentally social and cultural. Hence, how some resort to constant bickering and ad hominems to advance a point when something more serious is being discussed. Perhaps add something useful, e.g., @StefanAVFC sharp point above regarding the clear distinction between ideology (e.g., Russian history people, culture etc.) and political ideology (communism) or we could do freedom and democracy, where everyone gets a chance vs the capitalist monstrosity that is US political culture. Remember during the Idiot Bush years how we continuously told ourselves to hate the government not the American people.

So Ron has a book coming out and is heading to New Hampshire/Iowa to promote "it" in the next week or so.

Careful here in how you interpret this. Eradicating Communist ideology didn't mean getting rid of all USSR citizens nor did wanting rid of Corbyns socialist ideology mean eliminating him and his supporters. Though I am sure there are some who think that way.... language over here and the aggressive way it is used is somewhat different to how things are done in the UK. This means nothin regarding how offensive etc. these comments obviously are.

"WASHINGTON — President Biden had a cancerous lesion removed from his chest during his physical last month, the president’s doctor said Friday." Per the NYT via msn. https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/lesion-removed-during-biden-s-physical-was-cancerous/ar-AA18cfvK?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=ae219b48c35b4b7b81fc46034aee2554&ei=18

Probably the biggest issue with reuniting the island is the idiots in the FAI and IFA and all the politicos who will use them.... sigh!

There is a high likelihood for a recession of some form before the election. Biden, as president, will own this. Polling indicates a much tighter race than you suggest. It is miles away from election day, however.

Perhaps. It's not clear to me that Ron is set on running or that he and Trump are actually enemies (political or otherwise). The post election bump that Ron got has started to dissipate and his lack of engagement at the national level has allowed this to happen. This could be a deliberate strategy, waiting to see how things play out, i.e., specifically having the Dems run Biden again and by proxy destroy any possible viable candidacy from another Dem politician. He may have internal polling that shows he'll have no problem jumping right back up in the polls, but "mood" and "momentum" are fickle things. He didn't have much to lose by spending his time guns blazing on Biden over the past few months imho... other than Trump shenanigans. I am sure they'll be willing to put on a good show if the circumstances are right however.

CPAC getting underway with the likely next president in attendance. Although, it's really interesting to see de Santis hedge his bets and avoid showing up given the amount of backroom donor fun that happens there. Wonder if he is waiting for Biden to declare or is still undecided.

There will likely be conditions present to trigger a vote before 2030. But circumstances. Regarding budget, a united Ireland would face economic challenges, but as with Germany before and elsewhere, with a little extra financial support (EU/US etc), it shouldn't have any fundamental long term issues. Of course, the currently strong "we're in the EU advantage" may not last much longer given the emerging sensibility being knocked into the UK establishment by economic reality.

would have needed a bigger blur

There are plans afoot to get things planned and properly thought about as a border poll will happen. The hope is that by having meetings with relevant parties (business leaders, farming community, health care, policing.. gulp) the practicalities of a new state could be thought about and discussed and not have the country end up in the silly situation the Scots put themselves in when they had their referendum a few years back. One can only hope that it works in some sense as there is so much downside to any political change in NI. Hopefully, the British government will get this fudge/solution through and at least provide a stable ground around which the political parties in NI can now plan for the next election etc. It's disgraceful the lack of representation the people of that part of Ireland have suffered in recent years.

That's mental. In any normal place, that would be a newsworthy event. Up here in OH, a new elementary school is being announced, but they are changing a few things based on feedback from a building built last year... a bigger security station/hut. Back in MI, they were adding on to a middle school and all the halls were curved to reduce shooter sightlines... wtf. The political backlash against this will be fun... Rudi Guiliani will be advising half the counties in the country, because that's how one fixes things. More seriously, one would hope the easy justice crowd start to pay attention to the consequences of their policies. Here in the Columbus area, in addition to loads of gun crime, car theft is rampant (Kia & Hyundai in particular). The gangs have sussed that if you get a 15yr old to do the crime, then they are are just arrested and immediately released due to softly softly crime policies. One only hopes that our kids don't fall in with a bad crowd or some such.

Not a pic, but this deserves to be seen. Modern society.

The tories will sort this out... shudder. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/23/revealed-scale-of-forever-chemical-pollution-across-uk-and-europe "Pollutants known as “forever chemicals”, which don’t break down in the environment, build up in the body and may be toxic, have been found at high levels at thousands of sites across the UK and Europe, a major mapping project has revealed." This has been a thing in the states for a few years. Nasty stuff and worth knowing if it is anywhere near your home/workplace/water source etc.

Russia pulling out of new START will be interesting as there was a lot of chatter about bringing China in last time around, which was roundly resisted by many for various happy status quo reasons. I expect the next treaty post Ukraine to be quite the complicated beast.

Reading is tough, but keep at it. E.g., twitter.com/rogerwaters/status/1627580621613572096 See the comments there for a nice recent example, and this is a long way from the only person who was getting slaughtered for anything not along the lines of "Russia bad, let's arm Ukraine".

A vote about "peace" and the Ukrainian conflict at the UN today. The US is fully onboard, so I guess that means talking about peace no longer makes you a horrible Putin loving reprobate. Should lead to plenty of confusion as people adapt to the new playbook.

Not quite at this decision point yet, but the probabilities are very very low. I do live outside the local metropolis though, which always have their own special set of ills.

Meanwhile, Trump playing politics in Palestine... Ohio. USA.

I was being a tad pedantic, but it is so easy for any of us to navel gaze. Imagine 1919 and the never again thoughts etc. etc., and this replays all the way back through recorded history.

A pic during an opportune summer time bloom etc would be great. Sounds like you are earning lots of good karma.