Leaderboard

A visit from our daughter and the grandsons, Connor showing us his silver medal he won in the boxing championships in Motherwell, photos of a proud gran & grandad and daughter with the other 2 grandsons, Connor moving down a weight to Bantamweight for his next fights.

I don't know shit about F1, but the enthusiasm in this forum convinced me to watch the first episode of Drive to Survive.

For me, Bush was probably the worst just because of the damage he did to the world be destabilising the Middle East and creating problems for future generations to deal with - both with the instability in the region but also the spread of Salafist jihadis that have spread into Europe as well. But I think Trump runs him close, and from a personal perspective... his "maximum pressure on Iran" policy directly impacted members of my family in extremely shit ways. What the US did to Iran during the worst stages of the pandemic was horrific - it was essentially medical terrorism. But I agree with you, Trump's presidency was the most bizarre. US politics became an absolute circus under him - and I think it's still in circus mode even with middle-of-the-road-bog-standard Biden in power. It's mental the extreme divisiveness in American politics right now. I don't see what Biden's plan to give illegals a vote (which tbh I'd not heard of, but I think that's weird if true) has to do with calls of gerrymandering (which is when they re-draw districts for the US house of representatives to sort of guarantee states provide a certain number of representatives elected by whatever state is in power at the time... I really don't know why gerrymandering is legal, it seems like legalised election rigging to me). Biden's infrastructure program has been facing political resistance since he proposed it. His toughest opposition comes in the form of 2 other Democrats. I don't think he will get an infrastructure program in his presidency, tbh. I think it's almost nailed on that the republicans take back the house and senate - they'll not pass anything in Biden's last 2 terms. It's a shame really because US infrastructure is absolute shit for the wealthiest nation in the world. It's not just dilapidated bridges, even things like interstate motorways are in absolute rubbish condition because the federal government hasn't funded infrastructure projects properly. Domestically though, President's don't have as much power as people would think. They can make executive orders that impact federal agencies (like the military, department of homeland security, NASA, etc) but otherwise domestically... they're mostly just the face of an agenda that they then need to push US legislatures to enact - and I think that's been one big failing of the Biden presidency (and the Trump presidency other than his tax policy). Foreign policy though is where the President basically has all the power and that's imo the best place to judge a president. Because in the current US political climate, I think any US president trying to push domestic policy is going to have a tough time unless their parties have overwhelming control of the house & senate. I think Biden's not changed much policy with regards to China, in all honesty. And I don't think politically he can - the "America first" agenda was unpopular domestically when it was the US spitting in the face of it's longtime allies, but very popular with regard to sticking it to China. So many of the Trump-era tariffs on China are probably there to stay for the duration of his presidency (and probably the next president's as well). But yeah, Biden very much wants to be seen as tough on Ukraine. And the Western world's reaction to Russia's escalation of the conflict there has sort of made it a priority for all of them. So I'm not so surprised that it now appears to be the biggest thing on the Biden agenda - it's a chance for him to claim he's a president that contained Russia's expansionist goals and to have minimised a war in Europe, while standing up for the interests of longterm allies as opposed to his predecessor.

Adana Kebap on tomato-curry rice, with salad and a mint yoghurt dip. First time I've made Adana Kebap, and I'm quite happy with the outcome.

It's been... 10 years roughly, I think. It's kind of a long story, but I was going mental working at the family business after uni. For a bit I got another job that sort of put me on a different path and on that different path I was basically made aware another degree could open up a lot of doors for me and I was recommended some schools to apply to, including a couple of schools in the US. So I applied to some schools - and the best one I got into was in the US. I didn't really want to go, but after talking a lot with my parents/other family members I got a lot of encouragement to make the move. And then while I was getting my degree I ended up getting an internship where I'd end up getting a job offer by the company that would sponsor my first working visa in the US that was offering me a lot more money than I was getting the one job offer I had back home (if I was getting any UK offers at all, I got so many rejections it was really disheartening). So I took the option with more money, which was also nice for me because at the time I'd also started dating the woman who I'd eventually marry. Now I've ended up pretty settled here, even though when I first came over I thought I'd be back in the UK ASAP

Like @Spike, I'm not an American... but I live here, so I can maybe answer. Tbh, I don't think Biden is "as bad" or "worse" than Trump. With Trump there was just a tsunami of scandal, it felt like every week there was a new issue... and still today, the other parts of US government are still trying to deal with the behavior of Trump that often times broke many US laws. But I don't think Biden is a great president - but tbh, I never expected him to be that great of a president. I liked him more than Trump, but politically he's pretty much a bland middle of the road/business as usual type US president. And Kamala Harris is someone that I think has a better reputation with Democrats outside the state where she was elected as a Senator. But my biggest criticisms of Biden go beyond the big criticism that a lot of the more right-wing media like to hammer him for. They go after things like: inflation & the economic aftermath of COVID, which is his fault to an extent because he's President... but a big part of the issue there is he inherited a mess from a President that didn't really take steps to properly mobilise against the virus and even encouraged people not care about the pandemic. And then shit like petrol prices, where the President doesn't really have more power to do anything. My biggest criticism of Biden (and the Democratic party at large) is that he's kept a lot of Trump's foreign policy the same, while also responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan that is a direct result of the US invasion, occupation, and sudden withdrawal. And I don't think "well I'm the President, so I had to stick with my predecessors deal with the Taliban" really flies when the guy before him didn't stick with his predecessors deal with an also shitty but less shitty group of people in the region. And with his domestic agenda, he and his party have sat on their slight advantage and managed to barely get anything meaningful passed. Trump only really got one meaningful law through congress - his big tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy... but at least that was a cornerstone of his agenda. Biden campaigned on a lot of things but it doesn't look like he'll get any meaningful legislation passed on his watch... and it's looking like Republicans will take the House and Senate again, and then he'll definitely not get anything passed. But he's basically been the President I expected him to be. Moderate Democrats might as well be the moderate Republicans of 10 years ago, so it's not surprising that he doesn't seem too different to Trump.

no they don't CNN's owned by AT&T. NBC (including MSNBC) is owned by Comcast. The largest shareholders for both companies are predominantly US banks. If you want to blame any one person for the huge divide in US politics, better look at Rupert Murdoch... who's also responsible for the political mess in the UK tbh.