legov

Just now, Genie said:

They’d have said she was dead even if she wasn’t dead yet?  

We don’t know, but if she did die earlier today maybe they want the family to pay their respects before making it official and kicking off the long chain of events.

Yeah but I mean if any head of state/government died surely there would be an announcement re: the death first, you don't actually need to announce the death after giving the family time to pay their respects.

1 minute ago, bickster said:

Thats also a likely scenario

Outsider here but why all this secrecy about whether she has gone / hasn't she? If it was any other head of state surely any death would be announced immediately

Just now, mjmooney said:

Lineup for the funeral should be interesting. I'd guess Queen (obvs), Rod Stewart, Cliff, Oasis, Ozzy, Spice Girls, Robbie Williams and Jay Z. 

King?

1 minute ago, Davkaus said:

Apparently "most parliamentary functions" will pause for the 10 days of mourning. Good job there's nothing important going on.

Reckon Truss gets a longer honeymoon because of this.

On 08/08/2022 at 02:48, mjmooney said:

Not this bollocks again. Universities are for education in its widest sense, including subjects like history, philosophy, literature, etc., not just industrial and financial management training. 

To be fair I don't think he was talking about degrees (in any subject) from reputable universities, more like crappy degrees like Degree in Financial Management from the University of Bedfordshire or something like that...

Rishi's to lose now that Wallace is out of the running?

15 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Shamefaced confession time: I've never heard of him. 

The longest-serving Prime Minister of the third largest world economy. Probably its single most consequential figure in recent times as well. (and a bit of a right-wing nutjob, but that's not unusual for Japanese leaders)

Like Zen I'm quite shocked myself, this is JFK-esque for me although the impact is slightly lessened by the fact that he is not the sitting PM.

10 minutes ago, Chindie said:

Well yeah positioning himself as a right wing nationalist to the extent he refused to acknowledge the existence of 'comfort women' (i.e. sex slaves) in WW2, denied war crimes, supported Japanese imperialism, and wanted to redirect Japan's military stance away from defence to an international conflict footing would make you controversial...

Not the most knowledgeable on the subject admittedly but yeah controversial chap. Although arguably Japan has always had more of a problem reconciling itself with its wartime past compared to Germany so the most controversial aspects of his political views predate him.

Slightly peeved that this isn't getting its own thread, this is major global news haha.

7 hours ago, Chindie said:

He was still a powerful figure in Japanese politics, and he was controversial in a number of respects.

Undisputably the biggest figure in recent Japanese politics. Very much a hawkish right-wing conservative as well, most people on VT wouldn't be huge fans of him.

As an aside, this is really quite a seismic event given that it is the most high-profile recent leader of the world's third largest economy. The assassination has been compared to JFK in terms of its shock value, at least in Japan.

2 hours ago, maqroll said:

I actually didn't think Italy were the better team on the night. Much better second half, but on rhe whole I think it was pretty even. Just a huge missed opportunity for England to turn the blade after they scored. 

My standout performer for England in the tournament is Luke Shaw. Hardly put a foot wrong. 

Lessons learned for all involved, you'd think. Good experience to build on for the World Cup. A more aggressive manager in charge of these players will get England deep into the WC. Who will be that manager?

Thought Shaw had one of his weaker games last night, despite the goal.

The manager will obviously be Southgate. Maybe he will be more positive/attacking/aggressive in the next tournament, we will see, but there's no doubt the manager will still be Gareth.

FFS some of the overreactions here

Seems like McConnell is on board with the whole impeachment thing - which should make conviction much more likely.

Quote

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has told associates that he believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him, believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the party, according to people familiar with his thinking. The House is voting on Wednesday to formally charge Mr. Trump with inciting violence against the country.

At the same time, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader and one of Mr. Trump’s most steadfast allies in Congress, has asked other Republicans whether he should call on Mr. Trump to resign in the aftermath of the riot at the Capitol last week, according to three Republican officials briefed on the conversations.

2 hours ago, bannedfromHandV said:

The saying is ‘counting chickens before they hatch’ as they obviously begin as eggs.

Oh yeah. oops

1 minute ago, TrentVilla said:

Fairly sure you’ll be fine counting your eggs before they hatch.

Eh? Not sure I catch your drift

7 minutes ago, a m ole said:

Has much been made about these patriots’ actions killing a police officer yet?

Yeah, the flags outside the Capitol were at half-mast yesterday IIRC.

7 hours ago, sidcow said:

You would like to think they see danger in him. 

Whilst he's managed to energize enormous support he's also alienated so much of the rest of the population that they've lost by a landslide number of States, some which never swing have and they've also lost the senate. 

He's basically lost them everything whilst bringing huge disrepute and danger to the party and the country as a whole. 

If they had any sense that would seize the moment to rid themselves of him and try to reset with a new leader and new approach. 

A lot of the commentary in the election was about Republican support in the main being rural, older and not college educated.  People were saying a lot of States which didn't swing this time may be primed to next time as younger voters come into the system and more college educated people move into different parts of the country. 

Especially after the riots you would think they would want to purge themselves of Trumpism, but as we all know politicians are never very good at the big picture and considering which leader is most likely to get them into power. 

It may also be too many of them are still scared of the tyrannical regime will still hold sway and if they put the knife in now they will pay later. 

I've said this to myself so many times over the last 4 years, that it's blindingly how corrupt and dangerous and unfit for office he is, but no the GOP always stayed in lockstep behind him.

There are signs that this time the Republican establishment will finally break with him for good and get him what he deserves, but I'm not counting my eggs until they hatch.

33 minutes ago, MessiWillSignForVilla said:

As funny as him getting banned from twitter is, it seems to have overshadowed that he;s going to be impeached, again...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55596325

And given he basically lost the GOP the senate out of spite, pissed of a lot of the GOP senators and the fact they can use it as a "**** you buddy" on his way out, there's a much better chance of it working this time.

Successful impeachment requires 2/3rd of the votes in the Senate. I hope I'm wrong but I'm not sure I see 16 GOP senators joining hands with the Dems to convict Trump, not unless Trump does more dangerous stuff during his remaining days in office.

37 minutes ago, Brumerican said:

He still has an official POTUS account at his disposal so he's hardly being silenced.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-09/us-politics-live-updates-donald-trump-nuclear-codes/13043904

1 hour ago, HanoiVillan said:

A bit of a side issue, but I think you have to make a bit of a distinction between New York on the federal level, where it is undoubtedly very liberal, and on the municipal level. It's true that the mayors preceding Giuliani were Democrats, but mostly not liberal ones as far as I understand, especially Koch.

Not sure which American city is the most liberal. Maybe Austin or Seattle these days?

Wasn't trying to argue which city in the US was the most liberal, to be fair. Just trying to fathom how a city that is unquestionably very pro-Democratic could vote for someone so batshit crazy far-right.

You can understand New Yorkers voting for a Republican who's still left-leaning on many issues (like Bloomberg, who used to be a Republican), but I don't understand how they could have possibly voted in a Giuliani.

1 hour ago, sne said:

Should not give this platform any exposure but this damage control interview from OANN with Guiliani is worth to watch. Playing own what happened to "almost nothing" and blaming everything on the mayor of Washington.

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Let him talk. He's digging his own grave (barring some pre-emptive pardon by Trump) and even if he doesn't get prosecuted he's going to become irrelevant after what happened.

How the heck did he get elected as mayor of arguably the most liberal city in America, by the way?

Astonishing how much less powerful he seems without access to social media.

There are limits to free speech, and I think the social media moguls have finally learnt that.

I've always had a bit of a crush on him/her.

6 hours ago, Keyblade said:

This is infuriating.

 

 

Severe understatement

So Biden copped a bit of flak recently for saying that if you struggle to decide between Trump and him you ain't black.

In light of recent events I really can't see what he said wrong.