Political Posts

[Gregmal]

3 hours ago, changegonnacome said:

 

Let me say some nice things about Donald - 

 - he's done a great job regarding oct 7 hostgages

- if Biden was in power still I'm almost certain Bibi would have launched an attempted nuclear busting attack on Iran and pulled the US into a proper war in the Middle East. Bibi had zero respect for feeble Biden and ran rings around him. Trump is balls enough to stand up to Bibi....and unpredictable enough that Bibi/Israel gov might wonder one day if Trump would do to Bibi what he's done to Zelensky.....i.e. cut Israel off financially and publicly. Trump is keeping the war hawks in Israel in check, I've no doubt about that...and Israel and the world is better off for it.

- he's done a masterful job on controlling illegal immigration which was a huge problem for low income workers and exacerbated the housing/homelessness problem in major US cities. Some of what I'd call PR stunts (El Salvador jail etc.) while over the top...have, Im certain, played a really important part in getting the message across to those thinking about travelling illegally to the USA from South America....they are performative and theatrical....but they've got the message across that the USA means business and is closed to illegals and the flow has just dropped of a cliff. PR & real deterrents work.

- the deregulation agenda is deeply deeply important - a country that can't get anything done, is itself done over time.....and Trump can hopefully drive this deeply important work

- $150bn isnt $2 trillion......but you mind the cents and the dollars will look after themselves over time.....good that some momentum has been created around government wasteful spending and it might stop the incremental bureaucratic/poltician from writing a dumb cheque in the future

- one can quibble with the approach/tactics.....but the Ukraine-Russia conflict had a decade (s) long conflict written all over it.....maybe it still does.....but Trumps unconventional approach could possibly bring an end to a seemingly intractable conflict and lots lives will be saved because of it. He's attempting to be an unconventional catalyst for change and his overarching aim is noble.

- Trump is 100% right that the US should be producing critical products at home (vaccines, steel, automotive, rare earths etc.).....MBA supply chain optimizations be damned....you need to have a resilient economy to have a great economy......a great economy without any resiliency as we found out in COVID is an imposter. Any other President would kick the can down the road on this problem, say alot of words and drag their feet on it....Trump appears to be trying to actually get this US vulnerability solved in the near term....not some medium term bs target that never gets done.

Great. Good on you. It’s a shame his name is Trump because that’s a big part of the problem.
 

Politics is shot. Romney was our last greats hope and that went down the toilet with “the 1980s called and wants their foreign policy back”…two years prior to Russia taking Crimea. 
 

Only once people are thoroughly disgusted with their governments will things change. Either that, or unfortunately a major tragedy. I’ve never seen the country more united than after 9/11….in hindsight, it’s alarmingly informative regarding the hurdles we face. Until something changes, it’s my team against yours, race baiting, and handouts….

[adesigar]

5 hours ago, Gregmal said:

Point is nothing is even good enough and some will always complain or gripe or manufacture a negative out of spite. 

Just like all the shit you post?

[Gregmal]

27 minutes ago, adesigar said:

Just like all the shit you post?

Nothing wrong with keeping people honest 

[Sweet]

12 hours ago, Cigarbutt said:

Fact: Most conspiracy theories have some truth to them and, despite a potential figment of truth, they are still conspiracy theories.

Is that a fact?  Moonlanding, Rothschilds and banking, Holocaust denial, Chemtrails?  Where is the truth in those?
 

 

12 hours ago, Cigarbutt said:

Fact: The myocarditis risk with the Covid vaccines was rapidly identified and reported in a transparent way.

 

And before those facts were known, what did the media report?  No evidence of myocarditis (as sport stars were dropping with heart attacks).  It wasn’t a lab leak (now believed it might have been).  Trust the science was the mantra and dumb vaccine deniers was the label.
 

 

12 hours ago, Cigarbutt said:

Fact: During follow-up, it was clearly demonstrated that the myocarditis risk from the Covid virus itself was higher than getting it from the vaccines.

Yes.  

 

12 hours ago, Cigarbutt said:

Fact: The recent update is not a revelation, it's just a minor tweak to recommendations 

Do you agree with the above facts?

Yes.

 

But that’s not what I’m referring to.

 

You seem to be forgetting that the usual suspects became vaccine experts overnight, that concerns about the safety of vaccine and the lack of trials were dismissed, that the vaccine was forced on people or they risked losing their job, and that the lab origins of covid were considered ’conspiracy theories’.  
 

And the usual suspects were wrong.

 

Edited May 23, 2025 by Sweet

[Sweet]

8 hours ago, Stuart D said:

Yeah, I’ve met many people who fled South Africa (moving here to Australia) due to violence. Awful stories. Can’t go out at night. Frequently held up at gun point. Your home security is like a prison with all the locks.

 

I haven’t met a single person who missed SA and wanted to go back.

Yes, that has been consistently my experience too.  And yet we don’t want to control our borders.

 

7 hours ago, Blugolds said:

Our Au Pair is from SA. She’s white, I think if we’re being honest, she is probably mixed but looks like white with a nice tan. Anyway, it’s rough there, her family was robbed, tied up in the house etc. crime runs rampant, walls around the house, bars on windows, don’t leave at night, don’t go in certain areas. She’s been with us for 2 years and heads back next month. Last year we had her parents come over for a visit, both white, said the same thing. They were astonished that we park cars on the streets, all homes are in the open without fences/walls, they said it felt soo safe. 
 

I have no doubt that crime in general is horrible in SA, for everyone, AND that often whites are targeted. It can be both. 
 

Do I also think that it is a publicity stunt that Trump all of a sudden cares? Yep. Do I think that it’s selective in how human lives are valued in the world and when they care about who is being targeted and needlessly killed and needs to be “helped” by the US taking action and step in? Yep. 

If you are a law abiding hard working black person in SA there is not doubt you face a lot of the same threats.  But we shouldn’t deny that whites, especially those in rural areas with land, are being targeted.  This has been going on for many years.    
 

When we talk about how human lives are valued, I’ve not heard one major politician before Trump bringing it up.  Genocide is an exaggeration for sure, but if there are a group of people whose lives are considered less vs another, white SA fits that category because the absolute radio silence on the matter.  Wrong race and they are seen as colonisers.

[John Hjorth]

Reuters - Asia-Pacific [May 22^th 2025] : North Korean leader Kim Jong Un condemns warship accident as 'criminal'.

 

Little Rocket Man in grief, almost declares national day of mourning. Now somebody is in June going to be euthanized by the use of a howitzer.

[WFF]

Denmark just raised retirement age to 70. Any thoughts @John Hjorth?  Feel like Denmark is the new Germany, hardworking folks.

[John Hjorth]

1 hour ago, WFF said:

Denmark just raised retirement age to 70. Any thoughts @John Hjorth?  Feel like Denmark is the new Germany, hardworking folks.

 

@WFF,

 

It's a gradually increasing retirement age mechnism here in Denmark, that is taken politically up for discussion every fifth year in the Danish parlament, and a further step was added from 69 years to now 70 years in 2030 :

 

'Folkepensionsalder' -> Retirement age, &

'Fødselsdato' -> Date of birth

 

 

It's all based on population statistics for the Danish population over time, and concerns for not getting in trouble over time in the future with the state budget running out of control by deficits because of increasing retirement obligations for an aging population, that on average over time gets older and older due to improved living conditions in general.

 

So, political management of a continued balanced social contract between generations.

Edited May 23, 2025 by John Hjorth
fixed language

[Blake Hampton]

Here we go again...

[adventurer]

7 minutes ago, Blake Hampton said:

Here we go again...

+1

[Spekulatius]

7 hours ago, Parsad said:

 

Spek, I'm guessing you are being facetious, but there are minority groups all over the world being prosecuted.  In a predominantly black country, undergoing political and economic strife, I'm not sure there isn't some targeted attacks happening on whites.  While I'm sure Trump and his team are exaggerating the depth of the problem, I certainly think there might be one there that the world may be discounting. 

 

Now Cubs, et al pitting whites against non-whites, is just stirring up the same pot.  I'm not against any persecuted groups being given refugee or asylum status (white or non-white), and I think the libs and conservatives pitting these atrocities against one another is just insanity times two!  Cheers! 

Yes, I am being facetious and cynical, because “going back where you came from “ is MAGA language. As well other countries problems not being our problem.

 

I think the 54 or 58 Boers granted asylum is a publicity stunt. There are 2.7 million Boers (based on a quick search) in SA. Do you think Trump will grant a significant part of them asylum? I think that won’t happen.

 

As far as SA is concerned the country is basket case and ANZ is corrupt and incompetent at the same time. if I were white, brown, yellow or black, I would try to leave SA too, if I had a better alternative. ANZ leaders were at Putin’s victory day parade this year, which to me says it all.

Edited May 23, 2025 by Spekulatius

[Spekulatius]

13 minutes ago, adventurer said:

+1

LOL, 50% tariffs on EU. The playbook for the EU should be clear, raise counter tariffs of same mount, then let Trump raise them again. Slab some extra taxes on US big tech to make sure that stocks go down enough.

It will be interesting what happens.

Edited May 23, 2025 by Spekulatius

[WFF]

12 minutes ago, Spekulatius said:

LOL, 50% tariffs on EU. The playbook for the EU should be clear, raise counter tariffs of same mount, then let Trump raise them again. Slab some extra taxes on US big tech to make sure that stocks go down enough.

It will be interesting what happens.

Sounds like China’s playbook.   Perhaps another meeting at Geneva is the cards? 

[Blake Hampton]

 

Skip to 1:35 and watch through 2:42.

 

Edited May 23, 2025 by Blake Hampton

[Blake Hampton]

Facebook has fried the brain of the average American.

 

It's also sad that people are this desperate, and I don't even think it's that bad yet.

 

Edited May 23, 2025 by Blake Hampton

[Pellom]

Trump is who he is, but it's interesting to me that his self preservation instincts aren't working in the same way they did in his first term. He was deathly afraid of the market going down and people viewing him as anything other than a business genius.

 

Some of this change is natural, of course, because he's not trying to get re-elected. But much like the conversation with Biden last year, I think it is fair to wonder if Trump is not in total control of his faculties at this older age. 

[Spekulatius]

Another interesting case of the ICE going wild on immigration:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ice-imprisons-danish-dad-4-175125216.html

 

Many examples like this. Not sure what happened but I think they put the ICE into search and destroy mode by the new administration.  If you ever dealt with immigration (I have) - it is probably the agency with the biggest percentage of a$$holes in the country and that was the case even before Trump.

Edited May 23, 2025 by Spekulatius

[cubsfan]

11 hours ago, changegonnacome said:

 

Let me say some nice things about Donald - 

 - he's done a great job regarding oct 7 hostgages

- if Biden was in power still I'm almost certain Bibi would have launched an attempted nuclear busting attack on Iran and pulled the US into a proper war in the Middle East. Bibi had zero respect for feeble Biden and ran rings around him. Trump is balls enough to stand up to Bibi....and unpredictable enough that Bibi/Israel gov might wonder one day if Trump would do to Bibi what he's done to Zelensky.....i.e. cut Israel off financially and publicly. Trump is keeping the war hawks in Israel in check, I've no doubt about that...and Israel and the world is better off for it.

- he's done a masterful job on controlling illegal immigration which was a huge problem for low income workers and exacerbated the housing/homelessness problem in major US cities. Some of what I'd call PR stunts (El Salvador jail etc.) while over the top...have, Im certain, played a really important part in getting the message across to those thinking about travelling illegally to the USA from South America....they are performative and theatrical....but they've got the message across that the USA means business and is closed to illegals and the flow has just dropped of a cliff. PR & real deterrents work.

- the deregulation agenda is deeply deeply important - a country that can't get anything done, is itself done over time.....and Trump can hopefully drive this deeply important work

- $150bn isnt $2 trillion......but you mind the cents and the dollars will look after themselves over time.....good that some momentum has been created around government wasteful spending and it might stop the incremental bureaucratic/poltician from writing a dumb cheque in the future

- one can quibble with the approach/tactics.....but the Ukraine-Russia conflict had a decade (s) long conflict written all over it.....maybe it still does.....but Trumps unconventional approach could possibly bring an end to a seemingly intractable conflict and lots lives will be saved because of it. He's attempting to be an unconventional catalyst for change and his overarching aim is noble.

- Trump is 100% right that the US should be producing critical products at home (vaccines, steel, automotive, rare earths etc.).....MBA supply chain optimizations be damned....you need to have a resilient economy to have a great economy......a great economy without any resiliency as we found out in COVID is an imposter. Any other President would kick the can down the road on this problem, say alot of words and drag their feet on it....Trump appears to be trying to actually get this US vulnerability solved in the near term....not some medium term bs target that never gets done.

 

Well done change. Still one of the best posters around this place. When there are so many great things happening in the first 100 days - it's tough for the haters to admit a single thing. No objectivity.

[Cigarbutt]

6 hours ago, Sweet said:

Is that a fact?...
And before those facts were known, what did the media report?  No evidence of myocarditis (as sport stars were dropping with heart attacks).  It wasn’t a lab leak (now believed it might have been).  
...

But that’s not what I’m referring to...

You... 

...were wrong.

A typical strategy used by conspiracy theory followers is to change the wording of the opposing view. For example to change "most" for "all".

Another strategy is to move away from a factual discussion based on rationality and to use uncertainty to move the discussion into the ideological soup.

-----

Verified facts concerning myocarditis risk:

In Canada and the US, the myocarditis risk from vaccines was rapidly identified and reported, including by the US federal agencies. The risk was widely reported outside of "expert" circles including in traditional media platforms. I remember discussing this risk with American "friends" and colleagues in the early days of vaccines.

Conspiracy theory followers made the bet that the risk was reaching epidemic (frequency and severity) proportions. Based on scientific rationale and common sense, this bet could have been right but the odds of being right were extremely low and, retrospectively, the bet was shown to be wrong. The tribal fear mongering about the myocarditis risk contributed to the relative poor outcome of the US when considering the covid burden (mortality and morbidity) per US dollar "invested" during the Covid episode. It's not that complicated.

-----

The following has a human dimension which may not reach you (?) but may be of interest for less polarized folks. i peripherally know my province's public health head during Covid. A province in my country is like a state for you (or maybe a county soon...). I know his wife more and they live within a radius of a few kilometers from my place. He's just a regular human with good credentials and competence and basically simply wants the pursuit of happiness for all, like most humans do. His role corresponded to what Fauci did in your country at the national level: provide scientific reports based on developing evidence about Covid and formulate recommendations for the political sphere. On a human level, he is soft spoken and nice and he has absolutely no authoritarian tendency. During his tenure in the time of Covid (he was basically unknown to the 'public' before), he became well known. He started to be intimidated and to receive death threats. His house had to be guarded by police cars. This lasted months...The tribal instincts behind the intimidation have had lasting effects (tangible and intangible) on him and his wife.

Is all this bullying really useful and necessary?

-----

Have a good day!

 

Edited May 23, 2025 by Cigarbutt
spelling

[Spooky]

36 minutes ago, cubsfan said:

 

Well done change. Still one of the best posters around this place. When there are so many great things happening in the first 100 days - it's tough for the haters to admit a single thing. No objectivity.

Cubs you keep saying this but what has been achieved other than tonnes of executive orders which can be reversed by the courts / next administration? This chart from JPM is interesting:

 

[backtothebeach]

1 hour ago, Spekulatius said:

Another interesting case of the ICE going wild on immigration:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ice-imprisons-danish-dad-4-175125216.html

 

Many examples like this. Not sure what happened but I think they put the ICE into search and destroy mode by the new administration.  If you ever dealt with immigration (I have) - it is probably the agency with the biggest percentage of a$$holes in the country and that was the case even before Trump.

 

Way too harsh and counterproductive! Also, as usual, shoddy reporting by Yahoo. How about clarifying what exactly happened. According to perplexity:
 

"Yes, Kasper Juul Eriksen was in the U.S. with an expired green card. The core issue leading to his detention was that he failed to submit Form I-751, the "Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence," by the required deadline in 2015. This form is necessary for conditional residents to remove conditions on their green card and obtain permanent residency. Because he missed this filing deadline, his conditional green card status effectively expired, which ICE used as grounds to detain him during his final citizenship interview".

[Libs]

2 hours ago, Blake Hampton said:

 

Skip to 1:35 and watch through 2:42.

 

 

Blake

 

Ok, I watched that segment, I'm assuming your point relates to the woman's comments, her  hopes and dreams. So what is your point?

 

 

[Spekulatius]

27 minutes ago, backtothebeach said:

 

Way too harsh and counterproductive! Also, as usual, shoddy reporting by Yahoo. How about clarifying what exactly happened. According to perplexity:
 

"Yes, Kasper Juul Eriksen was in the U.S. with an expired green card. The core issue leading to his detention was that he failed to submit Form I-751, the "Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence," by the required deadline in 2015. This form is necessary for conditional residents to remove conditions on their green card and obtain permanent residency. Because he missed this filing deadline, his conditional green card status effectively expired, which ICE used as grounds to detain him during his final citizenship interview".

So an expired green card due to filing late for an extension is a reason to deport him 10 years later when he was about to get his citizenship? The ICE has used anything from parking tickets to decades old dismissed Marijuana possession, an Ukrainian biology student was deported for smuggling frog eggs.

 

If you put the same onus on US citizens, the country is going to be an empty wasteland. Even commander in chief is a felon technically.

Edited May 23, 2025 by Spekulatius

[Mephistopheles]

1 hour ago, Spekulatius said:

So an expired green card due to filing late for an extension is a reason to deport him 10 years later when he was about to get his citizenship? The ICE has used anything from parking tickets to decades old dismissed Marijuana possession, an Ukrainian biology student was deported for smuggling frog eggs.

 

If you put the same onus on US citizens, the country is going to be an empty wasteland. Even commander in chief is a felon technically.

 

Because it's not about "winning", it's about somebody else "losing" regardless of their crimes. Having a group of people to blame all of life's problems on is modus operandi for all fascists.

[james22]

15 hours ago, Gregmal said:

Fuck em 

 

Perspective is everything, and I've changed mine in recent weeks. I've begun to greatly enjoy the daily tizzies that the president and his administration send the Dems' flying monkeys in the mainstream media into because I know that it means Trump is over the target with his agenda.