Dr. Gonzo

Didn't realise trump was president in 1969: https://www.thebalance.com/unemployment-rate-by-year-3305506 Also look how it spikes up because of COVID - maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if the US federal government had... done stuff instead of just throwing their hands up and saying "it's up to each state to decide."

More criminals have been arrested at the border under Biden than they were under Trump - so Biden's better at keeping the border secure than Trump was Trump failed at every single policy goal he had except for: 1.) lower taxes for rich people; 2.) putting religious extremists into the Supreme Court. He really did fuck all for normal people. I suppose he does care for "his own people" but his own people are really just the ultra-wealthy parasites that have been gnawing at the western world.

That's just how it is with US politics though. Both parties give you two candidates you hate, and you pick the one you hate the least. My wife's a US citizen and voted for Biden and she doesn't think he's a good president, but she still likes him more than Trump. Which I think is a pretty reasonable assessment because Trump's a big part of the reason why the US has gotten so shit over the last 5 years: he started a trade war the US can't win and has made prices of everything more expensive, he spent a year doing fuck all as a virus spread across the country, and he lost an election and then tried to claim he won it and inspired a gang of knuckledraggers to try to stop the election results from being accepted. And he appointed the people that basically ended reproductive rights for women in the US just a few days ago, so I can't imagine many women are too pleased with him. It's what happens when you've got the two parties essentially owned by the same wealthy people. All the actual issues that are important to people don't really get addressed, you just get 2 different flavours of social policy while they push pro-corporate shit that makes the country shittier. I don't think Biden's a great president, I didn't think he was going to be a good president tbh if you go through this thread. I still think he's better than Trump, because Trump was a fucking moron with authoritarian tendencies.

I don't think Harris will really have a chance either. She's sort of been an invisible VP - which just feels weird, even though they don't really have any power other than breaking ties in senate votes. And she's tied to an unpopular administration. Maybe she'd have a chance if it was her vs. that religious fruitcake Pence, but there's no way Pence ever comes close to political relevance again either. I think the republicans are going to nominate DeSantis and then he'll be up against Biden. Biden won his last election not because people really like him or anything, but just because a lot of people really hate Trump. I don't think the dems will primary (try to replace) their presidential candidate before an election, just because I don't think that's ever happened before. And if it ends up being Trump v Biden again, I think it's just a toss up - there's people enough people who hate both of them that they'd probably just not be inclined to vote. But no third party has a chance, so it'd be one of them. But I think DeSantis is nailed on for the presidency. Democrats don't really have much unity in terms of the direction of the country, DeSantis has this Trump-like cult of personality spreading through the US media so he's getting a lot of national popularity... and Biden's just not that popular of a president. I think the democrats biggest hope is that the abortion stuff motivates people to vote for democrats to reduce the odds of a US nationwide ban on abortion. But voters in most first world countries have attention spans shorter than goldfish and what's a political issue now is probably not going to be covered in the news in a presidential election 2 years from now.

I don't think there's any chance he gets reelected, so probably after that.

Are you the South African guy from that HBO documentary about q-anon?

Pretty impressive cock size pal

what?

Is this some kind of weird Burnley sex joke? Going to bed with your mum and some virgins? A bit weird mate.

Yeah, it's very awful. I think, unfortunately, the longer this war goes on the more brutal Russia will be in trying to break the will of the Ukrainian people... a bit like what we saw with Russia helping Assad in Syria. I know people have been holding out hope that Russia wouldn't bring that kind of carnage to Europe... but I don't think Putin or the Russian leadership particularly care about where the conflict is. I think this is just how Russia fights when it's in a conflict that has gone on longer than the leadership had originally anticipated. And tbh, I think that was signaled when they put the guy who was in charge of Russian forces in Syria to be in charge of this war. Like @Aladdinsaid, for Ukraine this is a war of attrition - whether they can be propped up by the West to keep up this fight to get some semblance of a Ukrainian victory before they've become too stretched and worn out to keep up the fight. Russia's lost a huge chunk of it's military, but they have the manpower to keep the fight up regardless of the huge losses. But Putin's not exactly patient and Russia's got a history of getting pretty brutal and not shying away from war crimes in order to achieve military victory... and if Ukraine doesn't win, I don't think Russia will ever see the consequences for war crimes. And I do wonder if Russia will feel the sting of sanctions over the long term, like Iran and Cuba, or if European dependence on them will be too strong to give Russia long term consequences for the invasion assuming that by the end of all of this Putin is still in power. I know from my family, the long term economic impacts of sanctions are devastating - and while I think it's unfair for tons of ordinary Russians who had nothing to do with this invasion other than just living in Russia... because if Putin stays in power, Russia deserves to be feeling the economic sting of sanctions for a long time. Sanctions aren't a death-nell to a country, Iran and Cuba have survived while being cut off from normal access to the global economy. But they do create an economic strain that just gets compounded over time - and while they can be miserable for the people living in those countries, Russia needs to be feeling the consequences of being a belligerent war criminal nation. I'm not convinced sanctions are actually any good at getting meaningful long-term change over time (because... well look at Iran and Cuba lol) - but I certainly think Russia's more deserving of punative sanctions than two countries that have been punished for decades for getting rid of US-backed puppets.

Jesus Christ How long before they start forcing pregnant women to ingest firearms so that the unborn can exercise it's second amendment rights and protect itself from womb shooters?

It really does feel like papers are just making things up to get clicks and it’s easy to do that about a club that hasn’t made any big moves but has just had a high profile takeover and changes made above the manager. I think journos are quite keen for some big Chelsea transfer news… but since there isn’t any really, they’re just throwing shit around and seeing what the editors think will stick.

Fuck me, did you survive an abortion?

Yeah I looked at the born alive Wikipedia and no surprise that the UK had a more sane definition than the US. What a country, less abortions because “pro-life” but won’t do anything about school shootings

You’re not born alive til you’re actually fucking born

Are you using a religious definition of “being alive” because legally speaking you’re not legally considered alive in most countries unless you’ve actually been given birth to. And as far as I know, no country gives post birth abortions. Some states are set to criminalise abortion as soon as possible - leading abortion clinics to close their doors. So you can’t really pretend decision isn’t impacting shitloads of women just because nothing has happened yet. So you’ve essentially rallied against something that never happens while tried to sweep under the rug the millions of people that are feeling the impacts of this decision as nothing to really worry about. I think American society is too fractured to fix at this point. Probably a good time to practice saying Nihau

Just FYI California does not allow abortion up until childbirth & anyone who tries to tell you otherwise doesn’t have a clue what they’re talking about

Roe v. Wade officially repealed today... pretty mental tbh. Thomas's rationale suggests that other rights granted by the 14th amendment are up on the chopping block next - which could be worrying for a lot of people. Absolutely does nothing to heal the division in a really fractured political society either. It just changes law that's been settled since the 50s and guarantees that some states will go to extremes to limit abortions the way things were in the 50s.

Really rough time for Afghans. Taliban back in power, food scarcity issues, and now this earthquake.

No but literally right before people stormed the capital he said: "We're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them." Which is really not so subtle. And he even pretended he'd be there with them. "I'll be there with you. We're never going to take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong." I don't even know why they're having hearings, he should have been charged by Bill Barr right when it happened just based off that. Especially given Barr's testimony and by his own words thought that Trump was "disengaged from reality."

The smoking gun is the order he gave to the acting AG - "Say the election was corrupt, the Republican senators and I will take care of the rest" - that alone demonstrates intent. Then you take into account testimony from people who were in the inner circle of the Trump campaign, the numerous instances of sitting legislators aiding with the people who stormed the capital, the video footage of Trump & family while the events were unfolding, the recorded call to the Georgia Secretary of State asking that he "find the 10,000 votes" that would give Trump the win... It should be a much bigger deal to more people that the "leaders of the free world" had an attempt to have their election results overturned where people died and there's really been little consequence.

China is the real winner from this war, tbh. Russia relies on them more than ever now and Russia now has 2 countries selling it oil at below market rates that are basically cut off from the normal global economy. But Russia is for sure worse off economically than it was and it likely won't recover fully until they have regular economic engagement again with the west.

People died but sure & the evidence has been quite damning tbh

If Russia remained uneffected their stock market wouldn’t have crashed & then been frozen

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/mar/14/past.education1 happened already mate