Dr. Gonzo

Yesterday I was kind of intrigued to know if the GOP would pick a guy who's got a pretty questionable past to lead them in congress. Looks like, thankfully, that won't be the case as the American far-right has moved onto someone else they want to be their party leader in congress (although tbh I have no idea if that guy is better or worse than the guy implicated with noncing). It's kind of interesting to see the sort of chaos that we had in the UK with finding a party leader spill over into America. Apparently the last time things were like this was just 4 years before America's civil war broke out...

Not really even close to the worst thing he's ever said or done, tbh. I do think it's funny because I'm fairly certain tories play a large part in why education absolutely must be funded more, maths or otherwise. But I don't think there's so much wrong with this - I think all first world nations should be doing more to promote education, particularly with maths and science. Having said that, I'm not so sure he's actually going to implement anything that actually boosts maths education in the UK. That requires increasing funding for education. I'm fairly certain he doesn't want to increase government spending for anything. So I have no idea how he'd plan on accomplishing this goal. Fixing the NHS should probably be the #1 priority of any British leader right now. But with tories in charge, you've always got to be concerned about whether or not they actually care to do that - because quite a few of them push privitisation (which imo would be an absolute fucking disaster). So there's that. There's no quick fix for the economy either. Things like Brexit, COVID, the impacts of the Ukraine invasion... they all play a factor in why the economy is the way it is. Low growth and rising costs are something that pretty much every country in the world is struggling with right now. I think his plan is just raising taxes while lowering spending to try to stabilise things. I wouldn't expect him to do anything else tbh - he's a fiscal conservative. I don't really think those sorts of policies are good for creating economic growth, personally... but it's probably the least harmful thing a tory government can do in times like these. There's stuff a government can do to promote economic growth... but realistically, we're not going to see that from tories - especially not in this era of ineptitude.

I hope Matip can stay healthy

He’s got that nickname instead of being called Jim Jordan cos he was implicated in some sort of child molestation scandal while he was a wrestling coach

Not that I’m aware of

Day 1 of the GOP being back in charge of the House of Representatives... and it's already a circus. Republicans can't even successfully elect their leader to be speaker of the house on day 1. In the second round of voting... the democrats leader, Hakeem Jeffries, got more votes than the republican leader Kevin McCarthy. And that's after Kevin McCarthy made loads of insane concessions to the more radical wing of the GOP to try to secure the votes. I wonder if the GOP will turn to Gym Jordan to be their next leader.

The US has serious issues with effective laws policing the people who write the laws - there are some things about US politics I just expect to remain corrupt forever because it's been institutionalised in their politics for so long. Allowing these people to use insider information to make trades is a holdover from the laws passed in 1934 to try to prevent another great depression from happening. The requirement that senators/house members have to make the required disclosures is a relatively new invention, that Obama and the democrats pushed for. It was meant to "stop insider trading" but in effect all they could pass was something that just required political leaders to disclose when they had made insider trades, because there was not enough support to outright end it. It's like the lobbying laws in the US, which promote institutionalised bribery. The only reason it's not considered outright corruption is because the corrupt wrote the laws, then the corrupt picked the supreme court justices that would make decisions in cases like Citizens United, or in the cases regarding Gerrymandering (which basically allows parties to break up a state in ways that's favourable to their election chances... rather than breaking up districts into anything logical). It's one reason why I've long felt calling America the "leader of the free world" is a bit stupid... Free countries shouldn't be institutionalising corruption.

If you're not an anti-semite and you let accusations of anti-semitism undermine you because you simply refused to properly condemn anti-semitism... it's not just the media that's undermined you. He played his own part in undermining himself. And if you can't handle that kind of media pressure before you've even won a position of power... well then you're not going to last long if you ever win power. Because any labour leader should absolutely know they're not going to get the kid gloves Boris & co found themselves being punched with, they'll be getting the Mike Tyson in his prime treatment. Messaging and media managing is important. It's more important than actual policies for winning elections because most people on the planet are more stupid than you, I, or most people on these forums can imagine. It honestly should be the baseline for anyone with any hopes of any sort of aspiration for political leadership. And honestly, comparing Bernie Sanders to Corbyn is a disservice to Bernie Sanders. Sanders' messaging is so good that he was twice a contender to lead the US democratic party in the presidential primaries. To really hammer home why that demonstrates he's so good at messaging... he's not even a member of the democratic party, he's an independent. And I think he's aware enough to know that despite how well he did in those primaries, he never really had a shot (especially the first time around when he was considered an outsider threat to the democratic party) - but used his messaging to promote his policies, which in turn influenced younger left-leaning politicians who then got elected to the US house of representatives. Granted, any time Sanders has had to fight accusations of anti-semitism, he's got an easy way of effectively dealing with that shit: he's Jewish. In any case, Corbyn could have learned from Sanders past condemnations of something that should be so remarkably easy to shoot down. But I'm not surprised that Corbyn is infinitely more inept than Bernie Sanders. UK leadership and ineptitude go hand in hand.

Fair point. It's one of those things though where I just can't see anything getting better until things get much worse to where reality is basically smacking them in the face to get them to open their eyes.

Why does the BBC like the Islamic Republic of Iran so much? It's probably the most IRI friendly English-language media source other than Press TV (which is the IRI's own government propaganda in English).

The people who think we can just rejoin the EU with all the privileges afforded to the UK to get us to join the first time around are so deluded it's unreal. No way we can rejoin the EU and keep the pound. I wonder how far the UK has to fall before people come to terms with the political reality the UK faces post-Brexit. I suspect it'd have to be pretty fucking far.

I literally said tories basically control the media In any case, all Corbyn had to do was do what Starmer did... unequivocally condemn anti-semitism. It's weird that he wasn't able to do so, tbh. And any Labour leader not prepared to deal with a hostile media that will attack them for anything and everything is a woefully unprepared Labour leader who's not suited for the role. In my lifetime though, we've never had a good PM. The closest we have to a "good PM" is Tony Blair and Tony Blair is a piece of shit that wasn't flushed down and came to life. I'm sure the next PM will also be a massive piece of shit.

@Devil-Dick Willie if I'd said something like "Milliband can't be PM because he eats like a weirdo" you'd maybe have a point. But Corbyn being inept at dealing with things that should be pretty easy for any "leader" to deal with when they're an opposition party leader and letting that affect how he's viewed in the media is down to his ability entirely. He invited pressure on himself and constantly wound up putting his foot in his mouth. And you're right, of course the media will prefer tories - they basically run the media, including the BBC. Which is why any Labour leader is going to need to have some bit of brains about them to deflect bullshit the media throws at them and reframe media messaging being positive towards Labour. It's literally part of the job because it's not like mass media run by billionaire dickheads is going to go anywhere anytime soon. It's probably the most crucial thing needed from a Labour leader in order to get elected, regardless of political beliefs.

It's not really regurgitating a talking point though, the man was so inept at doing something as simple as condemning anti-semitism. And by not condemning it, he invited pressure on him and his party to be labeled as anti-semites. I like his politics, but I think he's more than a bit of an idiot.

Congress passed a law a long long long time ago that says members of Congressmen/women and Senators can make trades based off their insider knowledge without getting penalised for insider trading - so long as they report those trades within 3 months of making them. So it's not so much illegal as it is blatant corruption. I was shocked though when a few senators last year were exposed of having made insider trades without having reported those trades. Imagine you have the ability to make money using insider knowledge nobody else in the country can do, so long as you follow those rules... and you decide not to follow those rules. And funnily enough... they remained unpunished for crimes that would send normal people (even wealthy people in the US) to prison, just because they had leadership positions. I think those people are more concerning than Pelosi - Pelosi is playing the corruption game, but she's playing by the rules like the rest of the corrupt leaders of the US. The US's biggest problem in politics is the incredible lack of accountability. I don't think any Congressman or Senator should be allowed to be making any trades tbh, they should be forced to have their investments held in a blind trust managed by someone independent. It is a disgrace they are allowed to benefit from a system in ways that nobody else in the country can benefit from.

He already did before running for President. Trump's the first president since Nixon to not release his tax returns. It's sort of become the normal practice for running for president, to demonstrate transparency. I think what I was most shocked to learn about Trump's tax returns is that he, as an individual that is not a citizen of China, has a Chinese bank account. It is incredibly difficult for foreigners to open bank accounts in China, even for people who live and work in China. It definitely poses questions of how the fuck he managed to get that account.

Corbyn would have been a disaster at PM though, the man was shit at leading his own party... I can't imagine him running a government that's not just an opposition government. Granted... he'd probably have done a better job than the horror show the Tories have been serving up for over 10 years. I honestly have no idea how Tories still have anyone supporting them in elections at this point. Basically nobody in the UK can reasonably think "we're better off than we were 10 years ago".... I doubt people can say they're better off than they were 3-5 years ago. The stupidity of the electorate is genuinely maddening, it's like having a mate that drink drives and can't stop crashing the car you let him borrow... and continually giving the fucking keys to them, being surprised when they crash... yet again... and then continually giving them the fucking keys.

It was really disturbing to watch live on television. Takes a big hit right where his heart is, he gets back up & immediately collapses. I think it was helmet to chest contact. They're saying the impact sent him into cardiac arrest. I think even if he pulls through, it's unlikely he lives anywhere close to a normal life... let alone returns to playing. It's a bit different to what happened to Erikson considering he can't breathe on his own.

We’re on the open market and just signed a player, I think if they want to get the most out of their investment they can’t just let United stagnate really.

I don’t think United fans have to really worry about him not getting the backing tbh.

I think most Liverpool fans don’t like him anymore

Lukashenko had to rely on Putin to stay in power before this war... I'm pretty sure if Belarus get more heavily involved than they already are he's got an angry crowd of people that want to depose him, with Russia way less ready to keep him in power. I don't think this war ends until Russia's had enough of throwing men into the meat grinder tbh. And who knows how long that will take. Putin and Zelenskyy are miles apart from what they both view as acceptable conditions for peace. Putin wants Russia to be able to claim the territories they've stolen from Ukraine, including some where they've been beaten out. Zelenskyy wants Ukraine's pre-Crimean borders back in place. I don't think it ends until Putin's out of power, however long that may take. Unless Ukraine and the west end up appeasing Putin and giving into his demands - but I just can't see that happening. We know appeasing an autocratic imperialist doesn't work from looking at the history of Hitler. I think it's even worse to appease an autocratic imperialist that has nuclear weapons. Shame Russian men (and women) have less balls than Iranian women (and men), because if Russians were putting the same strain on Putin's government as Iranians are putting on the IRI... I don't think Putin could wage war on Ukraine and cling to power at the same time. Even if it would mean massacring Russians demanding peace, I think the manpower required to control the country would significantly take away from the war effort. Especially as protesting Russians over this conflict would get considerably more international support and coverage than Iranians could ever hope to get.

They don't typically fabricate their entire life story especially when things are easily verifiable.

This George Santos stuff hitting the news over the last week and a half is pretty mental. This republican was elected in 2022 to be a congressman for one of New York's districts and he's lied about... so much of his life and it's all coming out now. He's lied about where he went to uni, he's lied about working at Goldman Sachs, he's lied about his grandmother dying in a concentration camp and being Jewish (his family isn't Jewish, not even a little), he claimed his mum died on September 11th, 2001 at the world trade centre (she died in 2016). He even lied about being gay. I've always felt that politicians have massive issues in lacking integrity. Especially amongst the modern American right wing. But this is mental and is something unlike anything I've ever seen before.