Best Of

Trump has really brought peace to the Middle East.

To be fair to the old narcissist his efforts there have been less destructive than his disastrous actions and inactions in Ukraine, which is the conflict that really matters for the Free World.

Recall he dumped the Obama nuclear deal with Iran, during his first administration.
But yes, his idiocy in Ukraine is far more clearcut.

Why's it his idiocy ? Why is the idiocy not European governments who ran down their defence capabilities and let Putin do what he wanted on their doorsteps ?

Multiple idiocies are possible, but Trump's actions and inactions over Ukraine are much more damaging than that of [most] European governments.

Garbage. The EU sits on Putins doorstep. The initial German reaction to the invasion was to say nothing could be done.If your sat in the US you have the Middle and China to manage as well as Putin. the European governments just want someone to do the hard work for them rather than sort their own mess out. Oh and pay for it too.

Europe is a continent of dozens of countries, one actually at war with Russia, several on a virtual war footing and spending way more than we do, others not interested. The weakest link is and has for a long time been Italy, more than Germany. You can’t generalise about the region anymore than you can about North America or the Middle East.

America whinges about freeloaders but its military investments around the world have been in its economic and security self interest. They bought it global hegemony for decades.

And now things are changing. Europe ran its defences down and laughed for years when the US crtiticised it, Then along came Putin. Europe and Obama could have called Putin out in 2014 over Crimea but didnt. Now Europe has to put its hand in its pocket and stop moaning. Poland for obvios reasons has been building up its armed forced for years Germany, France UK could have too but chose not to.

The Israeli attack on Iran looks increasingly audacious and clever. They’ve taken out half of Iran’s leadership. They’ve paralysed Tehran

Unbelievable stuff

“Similar patterns to the Hezbollah attack. This will likely be revealed as one of the largest operations in modern history. Well-protected sites, top regime officials and key scientists are being targeted. The culmination of decades of Israeli intelligence work inside Iran.”

Mossad agents smuggled weapons into Iran and destroyed Iran’s missile capability from within. So now Iran is defenceless and Israel is pounding the nuclear sites. They won’t stop until it is all pulverised


In this instance I am entirely pro Israel. Go Jerusalem. I hope they take out the entire Iranian elite and the Iranian people are liberated

Agree. Much rather they did this kind of thing rather than pulverising Gaza.

The Israeli attack on Iran looks increasingly audacious and clever. They’ve taken out half of Iran’s leadership. They’ve paralysed Tehran

Unbelievable stuff

“Similar patterns to the Hezbollah attack. This will likely be revealed as one of the largest operations in modern history. Well-protected sites, top regime officials and key scientists are being targeted. The culmination of decades of Israeli intelligence work inside Iran.”

Mossad agents smuggled weapons into Iran and destroyed Iran’s missile capability from within. So now Iran is defenceless and Israel is pounding the nuclear sites. They won’t stop until it is all pulverised


In this instance I am entirely pro Israel. Go Jerusalem. I hope they take out the entire Iranian elite and the Iranian people are liberated

There’s an entire short funny book to be written on the mad foods eaten in far Northern Europe, and the Atlantic sub-Arctic

The seabirds alone. Omg. Sometimes eaten whole - beak, claws, feathers

The holy grail - the ne plus ultra - the Ultima Gastro-Thule - of such foods is the “fermented skate” of Iceland. Kæst Skata

I’m told it’s not just the worst food in the world, it’s the worst food imaginable

I’ve heard it described as like eating mucus soaked in bleach with your head down a urinal

Serious question. When was the last time you saw whelks for sale?

The tail end has the texture of mucous and the top is like chewy rubber, but covered in vinegar and pepper they are to die for.

They were standard on shellfish stalls in my youth but I can't remember the last time I saw them on sale.

I've not posted anything on the admittedly minor scale trouble that has went on in Ballymena and a couple of other places here in NI. I've now chewed it over and with my working class Belfast hat on think there are lessons that other communities may take out of it.

Anyone over in England who is complaining about undesirable immigrants might want to take note of the following.

1. Complaining gets you nowhere.

2. On the other hand, the cops, the politicians, the housing authorities or prevailing political convention that will flay people as racist if you do complain also count for nothing when faced with a community who know all about doing things in their own way and go ahead and do it.

3. Buried amongst all the hand wringing is a blunt fact. The locals ran some of the genuine undesirables out of town and then when they turned up somewhere else went after them there. They won't be back in the area.

4. Direct and violent action could, therefore, be said to have got a result. I appreciate this will be tough for many to swallow but there it is. There is a valid case to say thay it has.

Will other communities who feel aggreived and ignored regarding some immigrants get that message? They might, which means you got a heap of problems.

Who decides they were "genuine undesirables"? What about the completely innocent people attacked in their homes by these arseholes?

What definitely-not-a-racist with legitimate concerns hasn’t wanted to set a Filipino neighbour’s car alight because two Romanian 14 year olds have been charged with sexual assault?

Yaxley-Lennon's fellow travellers. It's turbo Daily Mail - who can we blame today ?

IMO the events are partially a reminder how far NI (and I) still have to go.

hmm I wonder if a 14 year old girl would feel safer in Ballymena or outside a kebab shop in Telford ? Strikes me England has a bit of travelling to do itself.

An interesting one I had missed from a few days ago. Ros Atkins doing a simple factcheck an attack on the BBC by Trump's White House Press Secretary

TLDR: Karoline Leavitt had borrowed some claims from a student activist, and repeated them unchecked. And not understood how new reporting works. It was made up.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c9wgq9vv51do

So fking what ? The BBC along with Sky is just overloading on the US and Trump, it has next to bugger all to do with us. Maybe the BBC could spend more time reporting on the UK and events and issues here than Trump fetishing, it might at least justify the licence fee,