Dr. Gonzo

Lol whoops, you posted right before I posted and called you fairly left-wing It's definitely not just us. You can see it happening in shitloads of countries all over the world, and I'm not sure it's a particularly new thing.

Imo, we should always give people the benefit of the doubt and I'm not sure saying things like that is particularly helpful. On this part of the politics forum, he should be free to let us know his political views. And as long as it doesn't devolve into anything that could be considered outright bigoted - I think it's fine, even if lots of people disagree with him. Being able to debate our political viewpoints is a good thing, even if we don't agree. He's come from a different forum where the political views there are a lot more uniform and a lot more right-wing than our forum. Here we've got more left-wing people, like me, @Inverted, @RandoEFC, we've got a lot of people who would probably identify as "moderates" - and without @Fairy In Boots active anymore, we've not got many conservatives to debate on here. Closest thing is probably @Cicero - and I think he'd say "fuck off, I'm pretty fucking moderate" As long as he's not crossing the pretty clear red lines I think we have on this forum, he's free to debate without fear of getting banned. We don't all need to agree about everything all the time. Especially when you consider we're talking about the UK - for the last 10 odd years we've been run into the ground by Tories that have been pretty successful in continually getting elected, while the UK's other big party has sort of stagnated and become less relevant. Even though I fundamentally disagree with Tories on a shitload of issues, I still think it's important to hear their side and try to understand how they think. At the end of the day we're all really on the same side and just want the UK to be a bit better than it is right now.

Found it! Looks about right, I suppose

Can't say something like that without giving us the link so we can all post our results too

Yeah exactly. They're both two humanitarian issues that probably should be better addressed by the government - but they're not really competing issues. Refugees should have a safe place to stay while they're processed. Homeless people need to have access to programs that help them get back on their feet (because, unfortunately, providing them with temporary housing often isn't enough - they're usually people who've got mental issues, crippling drug addiction, or both). Honestly, I think it's a bit fucked up to say "no more refugees!" while we're very fucking culpable for the formation of ISIS and the aftermath of the Iraq invasion & what that meant for Iraq and Syria in the long run. Our tax money was spent in a way that directly contributed (and in many cases, like with our strong ties with Saudis who give arms and aid to Wahabi groups.... we still are contributing) to ruining the lives of people very far from us. The least we could do is provide some assistance to some of those who've fled due to the chaos we helped build up.

Because the NY Post is just bog roll with words printed on it. It's basically the US's version of The Daily Mail.

Alright, if you notice this thread smells a bit worse now it's because I moved all that shit from the COVID thread here.

Yeah maybe they'll think that if they're a fucking idiot Take another thread that far off topic and I'll find where you live and cut your dick off.

Yeah - not so sure I want to delete them. Kinda feel like it might be better to preserve people's views on here - that way if new members can see it, they can form their own opinion of the "debate" and it's participants. I'll try it again

I tried... but I don't know how. I've just got 71 fucking posts selected and I think the best I can do is merge them into one giant awful post

The damage done to political discourse in the last few years is probably irreversible. That film Idiocracy was meant to be a comedy, not a documentary about our futures. But I think we're in for a future very much like the world in that film.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present exhibit A on why abortions should exist

This is well off topic now though, but I think most illegal immigrants in the UK are mostly people overstaying visas. So Brexit & any fear of refugees doesn’t really address the core of the problem.

Isn't the COVID vaccine the first mRNA vaccine (well most of them, the one jab ones aren't)? I'm not so sure the flu jab is really a booster in the same sense the mRNA vaccine boosters are. But your rationale is the same - the boosters would give your immune system the ability to recognise any new variants and mutations that have come out and teach your immune system how to beat the virus if you get infected by any of those strains. I think the flu jabs just cover the likely flu variants that are going around that year. I always get deathly ill after a flu vaccine. With the Moderna vaccine, the first jab had 0 effect on me... and the second jab just hurt my arm and I had a headache and was tired for about a day and a half.

Bad news for the British fishing industry: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-56932551 - UK & Norway fail to work out a deal regarding fishing. Surprise! One of Farage's big talking points turned out to be a whole lot of bullshit!

More like US vs. China vs. Russia vs. the EU, with the rest of the world just taking hits as these dickheads fuck around with the planet.

Yeah that's not Aliyev

I loved the Dead Space games, I'd wondered why we hadn't seen a new one in such a long time.

I know this is sort of a pedantic point, because it's a similar type of outlet to many of Murdoch's, but I don't think he owns the Daily Mail... so them leading the charge & Gove being Murdoch's man might be an indication that Gove isn't behind these leaks. I also think Johnson will ride this out, at least for as long as he can. I'm not too confident that there will be a smoking gun that takes him down before the next general election, though. It depends on how much of the outrage manages to be bipartisan, tbh. Otherwise, he's got the Trump playbook on how to ride out scandals, handle a mostly right-winged press that's overall favourable to him, and how to keep the right-wing populist base in line regardless of whatever negative may be said about him in the press. If you already think Johnson is an awful leader... this news is just reaffirmingly damning of the man's character. Otherwise, I think it can be quite easy for people who aren't bothered by him being PM to just do the typical "look at the media, biased against our man - we aren't going to believe this" thing and just ignore the scandal.

Arlene Foster fucking off as Northern Ireland's First Minister after doing all that she can to make Northern Ireland descend into chaos over the last few years.

I don't trust billionaires, but I also don't trust governments, so I guess for me there's no real ideal scenario. Regarding the protest, I believe he doesn't have any factual grounds why Blue Origin should have been selected over SpaceX - but have heard the protest has some merit based purely on a technicality based on the way the government went about awarding the contract... and the protest may be able to move forward purely on that technicality. Which yeah, it's just legal nonsense - but I do think it'll cause at least some delays. It's silly though because if it's between the two companies, how do you not expect NASA to select the one that's sent things into orbit, has worked with NASA already, and is proposing a lower cost to the taxpayers? But there's rules on how the US government goes about awarding contracts and it looks like Bezos wants to be a thorn in the side of Musk and force an issue on a technicality. The probably end result though will still be SpaceX getting selected - it'll just have taken a few months to sort out & probably end up costing more money.

Yeah apparently Jeff Bezos is doing an official protest with NASA over Musk's company winning a contract... but it's tough to say he has merit when he get anything up into space. I hate Elon Musk (and the bald Amazon dickhead) but I like the idea of space exploration... so if NASA could manage to carry on without needing SpaceX doing so much for them (which at this point is like hoping for unicorns to show up, never gonna fucking happen) I'd like that more.

I think the strangest thing about space right now is the space race between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Two dickhead billionaires trying to prove to the other they've got the biggest & best rocket

Absolutely better for him in the long term not to play in the Euros if he's having another operations. The rehab process after surgery is so important - you don't want to rush any of it if you want to make a full recovery. I think Rodgers knows all too well what happens when a player is used too much shortly after surgery and if they're not given enough time to heal - especially after setbacks from being brought back and playing again after injury, like what happened here - he knows what happened to Daniel Sturridge probably better than anyone not named Daniel Sturridge. And Rodgers and Leicester are fortunate they're in a position where they don't necessarily have to rely on bringing him back into the team as quickly as possible to keep Leicester on the right track. Shit to miss out on the Euros from the player's perspective, but if he had the choice I'm sure he'd take a longer career and a chance of playing in World Cups (like next year) over getting a chance to play for England this summer. Unlucky to suffer a setback, really - but now that it's happened I think the goal of the club and the medical staff should be managing the injury well to minimise the chances of another injury so soon to return - and hopefully other future injuries too.