Dr. Gonzo

Putin orders troops into Eastern Ukraine

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.

Don't we already know how they'd react given the Cuban missile crisis happened?

Tbf the US hasn't really "won a war" since it last took on sides with serious firepower. Next closest thing is probably the Korean War... and that was a stalemate. I think the fear is more that Russian expansion pulls NATO into a conflict, which wouldn't just be the US but all the NATO allied countries. And if anything happens to any NATO country or NATO troops, it doesn't really matter what public opinion on a war with Russia would be - NATO would have to respond.

Isn't that just starting a cool countries club of their own?

Yeah true. Although that was probably used against him as propaganda to pretty great effect, cos he wasn’t the brightest political mind in the world

I dunno if it’s so much imported back in changed as it was just the western name. Like saying “Achaemenid empire” I’m sure is the Greek name & that’s what we call that empire in the West - rather than the Persian name. Or the Spanish calling England Inglaterra but we call it England.

I also think Ancient Persia was less ethnically diverse back then too - it was before there were Arabs & Azeris in Iran, for instance, and Azeris are the largest other ethnicity I think. So it would make sense Greeks would be think “let’s call the place that’s full of Persians Persia”

Persia derives from the region Persis, which is now the province Fars in Iran (and the way you say Persian in Persian is Farsi). Persian is an ethnicity and the biggest ethnicity in Iran, but there’s a lot of different ethnicities in Iran so not all Iranians are Persian. The Greeks probably just called it Persia because most of the people there were Persian. But Iranian is the nationality and Persian is the ethnicity of most Iranians.

But that won't help their oligarchs get access to the funds they have abroad. Having their own online settlement platform is one thing - but as the EU, Iran, Russia, and China learned when they contemplated setting up their own alternate system to allow Iranian exporters/importers to participate in business while avoiding US banks... if there's sanctions involved with being cut off from SWIFT (which there would absolutely be), then any bank that does business in the US or UK (almost all of them) won't participate with an alternate payment scheme. The biggest reason to not cut Russia off from SWIFT is Russia would likely be unable to settle any debts/obligations owed to European countries while interest accrues and while European creditors remain unpaid until Russia settles down to a point where they can be trusted to be put back into the world of global banking. And I think for a lot of people who think mostly about finances, that's probably a wholly unacceptable position to them. However, I think that short term economic damage is probably worth it if the alternative outright warfare. I'm not sure this analogy works out too well. Afterall, Crimea had it's referendum after Russia had already invaded Crimea... and the results of the referendum were sort of in that "literally unbelievable" referendum result with something like 98% supporting Russian annexation (like an election for Bashar al Assad in Syria or Ilhan Aliyev in Azerbaijan, an election result designed to show overwhelming public support with a small percentage allocated to show "look we gave people a real choice"). I agree the US would never voluntarily give up one of it's states to allow the ethnic people to have sovereignty over what was once the Kingdom of Hawaii... but this would be more akin to a country invading Hawaii and holding a referendum... which I don't think the US would accept either. And realistically, I think only China would try that... but unlike Russia with Crimea, I don't think the Chinese could successfully claim that most people living in Hawaii are ethnically Chinese (though there's definitely some Chinese and Japanese influence on the islands - but there's also a huge American/British influence on the islands as well... and the natives are ethnically Maori - or some other type of Polynesian I believe). A better analogy, imo, is much closer to Russia. It would be that contested Nagorno-Karabagh area Azerbaijan and Armenia fought over not too long ago. That land contained the Republic of Artsakh, which is made up ethnically of Armenians but was in Azerbaijan's land. While Armenia provided (and still provides support) to the Armenians there, they never officially recognised Artsakh. But if Armenia were to suddenly claim that land and annex it into Armenia, that would be basically the same thing Russia have done with Crimea. Ironically, there, Russia conceded that the land there is Azerbaijan's and maintains that Armenia - while having historic ties to the land - has no right to sovereignty of that land within Azerbaijan.

Part of me agrees with this because history shows if you appease a dictator with expansionist goals in Europe... well... we all know about WW2. On the other hand, I do find it funny that the loudest voices talking about protecting Ukraine's sovereignty being the US and UK... probably the two countries that have not respected other countries sovereignties in the last century. And when you couple that with things like Ukraine's president telling Biden to calm down with the imminent invasion rhetoric last week, it does strike me as a bit... odd... It's a bad position Putin is putting the EU in - they can't afford to sit by as a country actively demonstrates its expansionist intent, but the natural gas dependence the EU has on Russia might make it difficult for the EU to effectively take any meaningful stand to prevent invasion. I think if the West really wants to take on Putin, they've got to hit him where it hurts... hit his oligarchs. Cut them off from the US SWIFT banking system so they can't access their cash reserves they have in foreign bank accounts outside Russia and I think Putin's position becomes untenable as these billionaires clambour to replace him with someone who'll get them access to their money again.

That’s mental. This cat was found in a barn at a local farm after she was born, the mother died shortly after giving birth. The people who found her and her brothers/sisters took them to a local shelter who put them up for adoption basically as soon as they were considered old enough. I think when I got there half of them were already gone, I think there were 4 or 5 of them when I went in to see the kittens. When I got there all she wanted to do was get pets from me so I thought, “this cat seems to like me best, she’s probably the one to take home.” I think I paid less than 40 to take her home as a kitten. Bargain! And thanks, she is a very pretty kitty I agree

That last point should be pretty clear with the West fighting on the same side as Al Qaeda and ISIS in Yemen - but it’s still something a lot of people overlook or just don’t realise

Ahh it's considered American, but it's founder and a lot of founding members are Canadian for some reason. I think people trying to bring this trucker protest to LA are in for a bad time. The Super Bowl being hosted there means there's already increased police presence, but I can see people getting very angry if the Super Bowl is delayed or if traffic in LA, which is already terrible, ends up being even worse on a day where traffic is very bad. LA road rage is scary, I'd hate to be responsible for blocking up traffic any more than anyone else because you'll make yourself a target for the many lunatics on the road there.

We had protests like that at a children's hospitals here in San Diego as well. It was ridiculous and should have been criminal, denying kids access to healthcare or harassing them and their parents - especially as a lot of the kids at that hospital are receiving cancer treatment. That group, the Proud Boys, are Canadian no? They're pretty influential in the far right in the US as well. I'm not surprised about most of the money and organisation coming from the US - it seems to be the case now with a lot of right wing movements in the English speaking world. Look at all the places Steve Banon provided "consulting" to after leaving the Trump administration and it's not surprising it's a bunch of places with similar right wing figures.

Sounds bad, if true I

@Viva la FCB - what the fuck is this trucker shit going on in Canada? I've heard a bit about it but I couldn't be arsed to learn more about what's actually going on something about vaccine mandates. Apparently there's plans for a similar style "protest" to hit Los Angeles before the Super Bowl being hosted there. I'm sure the residents there are thrilled about the prospect of even more traffic in the place where I've experienced the absolute worst traffic in my life (well... other than Beijing). But isn't that stupid if there's no such vaccine mandate in the US? I think only people who work for the federal government are mandated to be vaccinated, nobody else. But again, I don't really fully know what the hell is going on up in Canada.

So what I don't understand is... hasn't Russia already invaded Ukraine? Because Crimea is Ukraine's land - but Russia's annexed that. Why is that not considered an invasion? Purely because Russia sent in troops that aren't flying the Russian flag so they can be claimed as "mercenaries" and separatists? Russia's been pretty belligerent the last 20 years imo. With Georgia, Syria, and Ukraine they've seemed to be pushing the international community to see what they're able to get away with. Having said that, Russia can certainly make the claim about certain western countries and they wouldn't really be wrong either. I've seen a couple NYT articles that seem to be calling for open war between the US and Russia, but I hope war can be avoided and that the situation can be diffused with peace talks. Because I think the people hoping for war are really hoping for what would likely be the beginning of WW3. We should be seeking to avoid that kind of carnage.

Yeah we've been back home a few times. The last time was a few months before the pandemic ruined the world. If you mean permanently - we've thought about it and talked about it. But it's a bit hard to do without at least one of his lining up a job and once we get the offer we'd have to rapidly make plans and figure out what we're doing. We're open to it though. I probably am moreso than her

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.

Yeah he’s not the Glazer family

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.

These Club World Cup matches are surprisingly tough imo. But it makes sense, the side's usually traveling a much longer distance than you typically would for any other match... and you're up against opposition typically that doesn't get to face a side like Chelsea in a competitive match ever. So they're usually well up for it while the European side can sometimes look complacent because they should (and usually do) have the quality to beat those sides before the final even if you don't play that well. And the quality of the Saudi sides is actually a lot higher than it was not too long ago. They've quietly done with Saudi football what China attempted to do - but imo more successfully, even if it was a lot less flashy and in your face about the large sums of cash they throw at players and managers.