This is a self inflicted wound. We will have higher energy prices as a consequence.
Idiot.
Winter Blackouts in a long cold high pressure spell are already more than possible.
He needs to remember what Power Cuts did to Heaths Government.
Could you let us know what proportion of UK electricity generation is from oil?
It is not just oil but gas as well. 32% of our power generation was from gas last year.
The UK spent almost £50 billion on oil and gas imports last year. This decision will not reduce consumption by a single barrel but will just increase our balance of trade deficit and make us more reliable on imports, many from unstable places whose environmental controls are far below our own.
It will also do immense damage to our petrochemical industry. Good luck building using electric cars without hydrocarbons.
It is a fecking stupid thing to do with no redeeming factors. Virtue signalling to a suicidal level.
But the decision is not about what we do now, but about what we do some years in the future.
Yes and some years in the future we are still going to need petrochemicals, NHS medicines and everything else the industry supports.
We should be looking to end imports and the fungible profits that go to Russia and the Middle East before we look to cut our own production.
Amazing that people do not realise that a ban on using oil and gas as fuel would just result in it being burned off in flares and huge inflation in (and shortages of) the million and one other essential things made from oil as they would no longer be subsidised by profits from the petrol and gas distilled from the crude oil.
I am normally a really measured poster, but I do believe that this is the biggest load of tosh I've read on PB.
Oil and gas are going to be continued to be produced irrespective of whether there is any fuel demand for them*, because they have uses beyond fuel. (Which you get.)
But why would that make them more expensive?
You seem to be suggesting that the supply curve for oil points in a different direction to every other commodity in the world. Can I recommend this excellent piece: http://theoildrum.com/node/2899
* And of course, fuel demand will continue for 100 years anyway, but that's another story.
Are there any non fuel petroleum products which are markedly less damaging than fuel? Plastics don't have a great rep, nor fertilizers
Fertilisers are critical for ensuring people are fed.
But if you want a different sector how about pharmaceuticals? 99% of pharmaceuticals contain petrochemicals, so shut down petrochemicals you shut down the NHS and over the counter the counter medicines too.
Hope you don't need a paracetamol or ibuprofen any time soon, let alone anything more serious.
I remember being at an oil conference about fifteen years ago, and a Canadian E&P executive stood up and said "Oil and gas are so essential for a modern economy that it makes me crazy to think that we just burn the stuff."
Yes, the move towards electric cars is going to reduce the amount of fuel we need, but given how difficult finding entirely new sources of oil is, that's rather good news. Instead of having to replace 5 million barrels a day of production each year, perhaps it's only 1 or 2 million,
Its more difficult than it was but not that difficult yet.
The gradual rampdown through market forces (as opposed to idiot ministers banning exploration) is fine at first, but becomes a major problem when profitable fuel sales decline to the point that the waste sludge left over from distilling off gas and petroleum becomes *the* product and has to shoulder the exporation and drilling costs.
A bit like branch railway lines. They were built for goods. Passenger services used them but were only viable when the goods paid for the infrastructure. When the goods went the passenger services became an economic basket case.
In this parable the Petrol/Gas is the goods traffic, the other uses for oil the passenger traffic and the oil industry the railway.
I'm sorry, but this is still utter gibberish.
Ultimately, this is simple economics and everything else is flim flam. If there is demand for oil and gas for petrochemicals, then there will be supply. The idea that the supply will be more expensive because there is less total demand is utter rubbish. (And the idea there is cross subsidy is just insane. Why would Shell sell petrochemical products at a loss to relative to fuel.)
Sorry to belabour the point, but crude oil is a bunch of long chain hydrocarbons of various different flavors. But those long chain hydrocarbons can be either split up or joined together.
At one extreme end of this, you have the shortest chain hydrocarbon of all (CH4, methane) being chained together to make low sulphur diesel. And at the other, you have cracking where longer chain hydrocarbons are reduced to smaller ones.
In the event fuel demand were to fall to zero*, then you would still be able to use all of the contents of the barrel of oil for chemical purposes. So, even ignoring economics, your characterization is simply wrong.
* Which it won't
Why then was most gas flared off until the LPG industry made it usable?
Errr, because getting gas from fields to where it was used was difficult. It's a lot harder to store than a simple liquid.
Thats the whole point. I'm making. If it can't be sold off then it becomes a waste product. Its still produced when you extract oil but dosent contribute. So the rest of the oil products are proportionately more expensive.
No because that is only the case under the economics of the time. So for example we used to flare of gas on all the North Sea rigs. It wasn't worth doing anything else. Until the Government said you can't do that and people actually looked at it and realised that it was far more useful and cost effective to use it. So we reinject it into wells to drive the poil out or use it to run the turbines that power the platforms. Go stand on Leman Alpha and it is like standing next to the main runway at Heathrow. All powered by gas.
There is a small amount of flaring still done but that is safety valve stuff. You change the economic environment and it changes your outlook. Gas is no longer a waste product.
And if Petroluem also becsme a waste product then the viability of the heavier feedstock "sludge" like Napatha that is used to make plastics is undermined. They would have to bear a much greater proportion of the exploration/drilling costs or if the market wouldn't wear the increased price then production would cease and there would be increasing shortages until the price did go up enough.
Similarly the fertilizer is made from petroleum coke, another otherwise waste product from refining petroleum which if there is no use for the petroleum has to bear the cost.
You cant just switch to making fertiliser and plastics from petroleum.
Well, let's leave aside fertilizer. I mean you could make fertilizer from oil, but it would be a pretty stupid thing (economically) to do, given the world has massive amounts of natural gas - from existing conventional fields, to tight gas fields in the US, to coal seam methane.
Your basic contention is that you cannot use all of a barrel of oil for petrochemical purposes, and that is simply chemically (and economically) wrong.
I would point out that there are three people telling you this: One is a man who has worked in the oil & gas industry for (at least) 30 years, much of it on rigs in the North Sea. Another is a physics teacher who, one would think, knows a little bit about the various chemical reactions. And me, who has financed billions of dollars of oil and gas projects over the years.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
If US voters were bothered about being lied to, why would they ever have elected Trump?
A very fair point
I guess I'm talking about a few million swing voters in a few crucial states. Will they be relieved they now have a sane Dem candidate, even if she's rubbish, or will they be so angry at all the Democrat lies - and a truly epic cover-up, deserving criminal charges - they seek to punish the Dems?
A newly elected Labour MP spent her first day opposing a housing development despite the Government's vow to build more homes.
Sarah Coombes announced she was taking a break from Parliament to speak at a planning appeal on behalf of residents who are trying to stop fewer than 200 houses and a country park being built on farmland in the Black Country.
She posted on social media a photo of locals holding up signs reading 'say no to housing in the green belt' and 'we need to keep our prime quality farmland'.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
If US voters were bothered about being lied to, why would they ever have elected Trump?
A very fair point
I guess I'm talking about a few million swing voters in a few crucial states. Will they be relieved they now have a sane Dem candidate, even if she's rubbish, or will they be so angry at all the Democrat lies - and a truly epic cover-up, deserving criminal charges - they seek to punish the Dems?
I genuinely dunno
I think they care about that less than about having a senile Presidential candidate.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
If US voters were bothered about being lied to, why would they ever have elected Trump?
hmm
I thought it was mad dumbass rednecks who elected Trump, whereas Bidens voters are intellectual upright beacons of truth ? So wouldnt the Biden voters worry about being serially lied to ?
A newly elected Labour MP spent her first day opposing a housing development despite the Government's vow to build more homes.
Sarah Coombes announced she was taking a break from Parliament to speak at a planning appeal on behalf of residents who are trying to stop fewer than 200 houses and a country park being built on farmland in the Black Country.
She posted on social media a photo of locals holding up signs reading 'say no to housing in the green belt' and 'we need to keep our prime quality farmland'.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
If US voters were bothered about being lied to, why would they ever have elected Trump?
A very fair point
I guess I'm talking about a few million swing voters in a few crucial states. Will they be relieved they now have a sane Dem candidate, even if she's rubbish, or will they be so angry at all the Democrat lies - and a truly epic cover-up, deserving criminal charges - they seek to punish the Dems?
I genuinely dunno
I think they care about that less than about having a senile Presidential candidate.
It's all guesswork
This has never happened before, a sitting one term president (who can argue quite convincingly he's done a decent job) being gouged out of office because he's senile, and - not only that - many senior people in his party have known this for a year, but they lied to the American electorate, and - worse - wanted to foist this madman on the voters for a second term
That's pretty explosive, and it richly feeds so many GOP conspiracy theories about the American Left
"'No one involved in the effort thinks he has a path': Biden insiders say the writing is on the wall
The set of Democrats who think he should reconsider his decision to stay in the race has grown to include aides, operatives and officials tasked with guiding his campaign to victory."
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Hang on a minute — I asked on here a few days ago if "Biden standing down" meant him standing down as president, or simply not being the candidate in November, and most people replied that it probably meant the latter, not the former. Now you're implying it would mean him standing down first.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Closing down ordinary peoples jobs just so he can grandstand in front of his Londony mates.
I hope his rancid cock drops off
Top marks for really juvenile, and somewhat contradictory, invective.
Thanks.
Were back in a :Labour government and can point out the effing obvious. Miliband should not be let anywhere near a government.
Slightly different view from 'I hope his rancid cock drops off', you utter plonker.
Oh dear now youre resorting to insults.
Get used to having the twats in Labour called out we've been here before.
We've just had 14 years of government by spoilt brats. Thankfully the grown-ups are back in charge again.
It's that 'again" I struggle with. Blair committed this country to killing at least 6 figures of Iraqi civilians because it got him personally to look besties with Bush. If he had caused the violent death of 100000 British people you would have regarded that as comment worthy? It's not easy for me to think of reasons for discounting for Iraqiness. I mean presumably you didn't campaign in favour of apartheid back in the day, so why do you celebrate Blair's achievement?
Blair made a serious mistake with Iraq. He made a judgement call, I think he got it wrong.
But compared with the fuckwits we have had to put up with for the past 5 years (giving a special mention to Johnson and Truss) Blair was a serious politician.
right so Truss and Boris dicking about is more serious than 500,00 dead, a melt down in Iraq the rise ISIS, the serial destabilisation of the Middle East and Hamas kicking off on Israel ?
We clearly have different values.
On the plus side Tony has made an absolute killing ( sorry for the pun ) as a Middle East Peace Envoy.
Closing down ordinary peoples jobs just so he can grandstand in front of his Londony mates.
I hope his rancid cock drops off
Top marks for really juvenile, and somewhat contradictory, invective.
Thanks.
Were back in a :Labour government and can point out the effing obvious. Miliband should not be let anywhere near a government.
Slightly different view from 'I hope his rancid cock drops off', you utter plonker.
Oh dear now youre resorting to insults.
Get used to having the twats in Labour called out we've been here before.
We've just had 14 years of government by spoilt brats. Thankfully the grown-ups are back in charge again.
It's that 'again" I struggle with. Blair committed this country to killing at least 6 figures of Iraqi civilians because it got him personally to look besties with Bush. If he had caused the violent death of 100000 British people you would have regarded that as comment worthy? It's not easy for me to think of reasons for discounting for Iraqiness. I mean presumably you didn't campaign in favour of apartheid back in the day, so why do you celebrate Blair's achievement?
Blair made a serious mistake with Iraq. He made a judgement call, I think he got it wrong.
But compared with the fuckwits we have had to put up with for the past 5 years (giving a special mention to Johnson and Truss) Blair was a serious politician.
"A serious mistake." And lied to parliament and the country to ensure he got to make it. But great for those Iraqis to know they were murdered by a serious politician.
This is genuinely disgusting stuff of which you should be ashamed. Put on segregated buses in South Africa equals boo, bombed to death by good ole mistake-makin' Tone, who's counting?
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Hang on a minute — I asked on here a few days ago if "Biden standing down" meant him standing down as president, or simply not being the candidate in November, and most people replied that it probably meant the latter, not the former. Now you're implying it would mean him standing down first.
I responded at the time, and have not changed my mind, that if he stands down as candidate he has to stand down as POTUS.
You can't say you're too far gone to do another four years, but the next six months are just OK.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Hang on a minute — I asked on here a few days ago if "Biden standing down" meant him standing down as president, or simply not being the candidate in November, and most people replied that it probably meant the latter, not the former. Now you're implying it would mean him standing down first.
No, it surely means he resigns ASAFP. If you're too senile to stand you're too senile to be POTUS. and of course senility always gets worse, and sometimes accelerates, and he has six months left
Also the Dems will want to put Harris in the Oval Office NOW so she has a presidential aura and can use that to boost her credibility (which she sorely lacks)
Is anyone suggesting Biden will resign as President? Is his health so poor the 25th Amendment has to be invoked?
LBJ famously withdrew himself from the 1968 election but remained as POTUS and any two-term President (Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama) remains President until the inauguration of the successful election candidate in the following January.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
This either the time to lay off my entire position on Biden, to win a couple of extra hundred quid, or I'm about to ruin a careful position built up over two years.
Since it's still rumours, I'm still keeping him green and just laying off a tiny bit.
A preview of what could be to come: Vermont Rep. Becca Balint, a statewide elected office holder, says that her constituents "overwhelmingly" would like Biden to step aside.
Peter Welch, the state's junior senator, called on Biden to end his campaign for re-election.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Hang on a minute — I asked on here a few days ago if "Biden standing down" meant him standing down as president, or simply not being the candidate in November, and most people replied that it probably meant the latter, not the former. Now you're implying it would mean him standing down first.
No, it surely means he resigns ASAFP. If you're too senile to stand you're too senile to be POTUS. and of course senility always gets worse, and sometimes accelerates, and he has six months left
Also the Dems will want to put Harris in the Oval Office NOW so she has a presidential aura and can use that to boost her credibility (which she sorely lacks)
Either is possible. He could say "I'm fine to govern through to January but doctors advise I'm not going to be able to get through another four year term". It's would be a lie but he could try it. I am sure Biden would want to complete a full four-year term if possible.
I'm tending towards the step down now option though; the momentum is building and will soon be unstoppable.
Putin was held at bay while Trump was in the White House, but after a summit meeting with Biden, he launched a full-scale invasion.
Whatever you think of Biden or Trump as individuals, it's a point of fact that Biden, not Trump, failed to deter the invasion.
Preparations for the invasion began before Biden was even elected. At least by early 2020, and likely earlier than that. Now you could argue that Biden didn't deter it, but it certainly looks like Putin would have attacked on Trump's watch if he had be re-elected.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
Necklace, Covid, Lab Leak, Biden Senile, Nordstream, Ukraine not winning, Aliens really DID become a major issue, and THAT technology, and so much more
I call the big ones right. Apart from Southgate
What the PB centrist twats lack is imagination, and creativity. You need these to extrapolate, and to see beyond the lies told to the herd, which most of PB is: a herd
I am the wolf that howls on the crag, sometimes maddening, but wild and free; you are the ewe that bleats in the field, then gets its head stuck in a fence. ITS JUST A STAMMER
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Hang on a minute — I asked on here a few days ago if "Biden standing down" meant him standing down as president, or simply not being the candidate in November, and most people replied that it probably meant the latter, not the former. Now you're implying it would mean him standing down first.
No, it surely means he resigns ASAFP. If you're too senile to stand you're too senile to be POTUS. and of course senility always gets worse, and sometimes accelerates, and he has six months left
Also the Dems will want to put Harris in the Oval Office NOW so she has a presidential aura and can use that to boost her credibility (which she sorely lacks)
Either is possible. He could say "I'm fine to govern through to January but doctors advise I'm not going to be able to get through another four year term". It's would be a lie but he could try it. I am sure Biden would want to complete a full four-year term if possible.
I'm tending towards the step down now option though; the momentum is building and will soon be unstoppable.
If he stops being the candidate, getting Harris elected has to be the top priority.
This either the time to lay off my entire position on Biden, to win a couple of extra hundred quid, or I'm about to ruin a careful position built up over two years.
Since it's still rumours, I'm still keeping him green and just laying off a tiny bit.
Call me cautious. May look dumb by Monday.
Apparently he is doing a live press conference in a couple of hours which many see as critical
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
I assume you opposed the Iraq war at the time? Unlike the Conservative opposition of course.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
I assume you opposed the Iraq war at the time? Unlike the Conservative opposition of course.
No.
It was the right thing to do.
Saddam was a vile monster and it was right to get regime change.
Putin was held at bay while Trump was in the White House, but after a summit meeting with Biden, he launched a full-scale invasion.
Whatever you think of Biden or Trump as individuals, it's a point of fact that Biden, not Trump, failed to deter the invasion.
Preparations for the invasion began before Biden was even elected. At least by early 2020, and likely earlier than that. Now you could argue that Biden didn't deter it, but it certainly looks like Putin would have attacked on Trump's watch if he had be re-elected.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
Necklace, Covid, Lab Leak, Biden Senile, Nordstream, Ukraine not winning, Aliens really DID become a major issue, and THAT technology, and so much more
I call the big ones right. Apart from Southgate
What the PB centrist twats lack is imagination, and creativity. You need these to extrapolate, and to see beyond the lies told to the herd, which most of PB is: a herd
I am the wolf that howls on the crag, sometimes maddening, but wild and free; you are the ewe that bleats in the field, then gets its head stuck in a fence. ITS JUST A STAMMER
Speaking as a PB centrist twat I personally feel blessed that you debase yourself by lowering yourself down to my twatty level to offer such nuggets of insight.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
If US voters were bothered about being lied to, why would they ever have elected Trump?
A very fair point
I guess I'm talking about a few million swing voters in a few crucial states. Will they be relieved they now have a sane Dem candidate, even if she's rubbish, or will they be so angry at all the Democrat lies - and a truly epic cover-up, deserving criminal charges - they seek to punish the Dems?
I genuinely dunno
I think they care about that less than about having a senile Presidential candidate.
It's all guesswork
This has never happened before, a sitting one term president (who can argue quite convincingly he's done a decent job) being gouged out of office because he's senile, and - not only that - many senior people in his party have known this for a year, but they lied to the American electorate, and - worse - wanted to foist this madman on the voters for a second term
That's pretty explosive, and it richly feeds so many GOP conspiracy theories about the American Left
Like Joe Biden, I think the electorate have quite short memories.
I would also point out that this is not the first time this has happened. Towards the end of Reagan's second term in office, he was also suffering from evidently decreased mental acuity, and was kept increasingly out of the spotlight. It didn't stop George HW Bush becoming President.
The people most exercised by this are the people who - as you say - were already in thrall to conspiracy theories about the (relative) Left in America. So, how much incremental impact is there, compared to the obvious benefit of having a candidate capable of stringing a whole sentence together.
Putin was held at bay while Trump was in the White House, but after a summit meeting with Biden, he launched a full-scale invasion.
Whatever you think of Biden or Trump as individuals, it's a point of fact that Biden, not Trump, failed to deter the invasion.
Preparations for the invasion began before Biden was even elected. At least by early 2020, and likely earlier than that. Now you could argue that Biden didn't deter it, but it certainly looks like Putin would have attacked on Trump's watch if he had be re-elected.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
If US voters were bothered about being lied to, why would they ever have elected Trump?
A very fair point
I guess I'm talking about a few million swing voters in a few crucial states. Will they be relieved they now have a sane Dem candidate, even if she's rubbish, or will they be so angry at all the Democrat lies - and a truly epic cover-up, deserving criminal charges - they seek to punish the Dems?
I genuinely dunno
Thanks for the right wing Twitter précis. “Deserving criminal charges”. US constitutional and legal expert Leon weighs in.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
Necklace, Covid, Lab Leak, Biden Senile, Nordstream, Ukraine not winning, Aliens really DID become a major issue, and THAT technology, and so much more
I call the big ones right. Apart from Southgate
What the PB centrist twats lack is imagination, and creativity. You need these to extrapolate, and to see beyond the lies told to the herd, which most of PB is: a herd
I am the wolf that howls on the crag, sometimes maddening, but wild and free; you are the ewe that bleats in the field, then gets its head stuck in a fence. ITS JUST A STAMMER
Speaking as a PB centrist twat I personally feel blessed that you debase yourself by lowering yourself down to my twatty level to offer such nuggets of insight.
Well that's very generous of you, and also wise and insightful, I salute your sentiments; you are a jolly good man and also you have a ghost in your workplace, which is brilliant
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
Necklace, Covid, Lab Leak, Biden Senile, Nordstream, Ukraine not winning, Aliens really DID become a major issue, and THAT technology, and so much more
I call the big ones right. Apart from Southgate
What the PB centrist twats lack is imagination, and creativity. You need these to extrapolate, and to see beyond the lies told to the herd, which most of PB is: a herd
I am the wolf that howls on the crag, sometimes maddening, but wild and free; you are the ewe that bleats in the field, then gets its head stuck in a fence. ITS JUST A STAMMER
Oh yes the necklace. They don't come much bigger than that do they? Shaped the whole political debate for years that one.
Well done on spotting Covid btw - the rest of us missed it altogether.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
Necklace, Covid, Lab Leak, Biden Senile, Nordstream, Ukraine not winning, Aliens really DID become a major issue, and THAT technology, and so much more
I call the big ones right. Apart from Southgate
What the PB centrist twats lack is imagination, and creativity. You need these to extrapolate, and to see beyond the lies told to the herd, which most of PB is: a herd
I am the wolf that howls on the crag, sometimes maddening, but wild and free; you are the ewe that bleats in the field, then gets its head stuck in a fence. ITS JUST A STAMMER
Oh yes the necklace. They don't come much bigger than that do they? Shaped the whole political debate for years that one.
Well done on spotting Covid btw - the rest of us missed it altogether.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
I assume you opposed the Iraq war at the time? Unlike the Conservative opposition of course.
Yes. I marched.
And I don't know if you have noticed, probably not, but your position has slipped with that post from Blair - serious grown up politician to Blair - no more morally vacuous and disgusting than IDS. LOL.
Top tip: brown Asians have as much of a right not to be murdered as black Africans have to go to the beach.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
Necklace, Covid, Lab Leak, Biden Senile, Nordstream, Ukraine not winning, Aliens really DID become a major issue, and THAT technology, and so much more
I call the big ones right. Apart from Southgate
What the PB centrist twats lack is imagination, and creativity. You need these to extrapolate, and to see beyond the lies told to the herd, which most of PB is: a herd
I am the wolf that howls on the crag, sometimes maddening, but wild and free; you are the ewe that bleats in the field, then gets its head stuck in a fence. ITS JUST A STAMMER
Oh yes the necklace. They don't come much bigger than that do they? Shaped the whole political debate for years that one.
Well done on spotting Covid btw - the rest of us missed it altogether.
Putin was held at bay while Trump was in the White House, but after a summit meeting with Biden, he launched a full-scale invasion.
Whatever you think of Biden or Trump as individuals, it's a point of fact that Biden, not Trump, failed to deter the invasion.
Preparations for the invasion began before Biden was even elected. At least by early 2020, and likely earlier than that. Now you could argue that Biden didn't deter it, but it certainly looks like Putin would have attacked on Trump's watch if he had be re-elected.
Putin did not attack when Trump was POTUS, he did when Biden was there
It MIGHT not be Biden's fault but generally politicians get the blame for what happens on their watch. Biden failed to deter Putin
On that basis, of course, the Chinese only felt empowered to release Covid onto the world when Trump was President.
Vote Trump, get another pandemic.
I think fundamentally Russia was set on trying to take all of Ukraine no matter who the President was. The pandemic likely stalled plans. Perhaps they do see Biden as weak, but equally they see Trump as compliant, and more importantly they see the West as being unwilling to confront them.
One problem with Biden stepping down now is the millions of dollars he has raised. He's out raised a ton. I don't think (although someone correct me if I'm wrong) he can just hand that over to Harris?
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
If US voters were bothered about being lied to, why would they ever have elected Trump?
A very fair point
I guess I'm talking about a few million swing voters in a few crucial states. Will they be relieved they now have a sane Dem candidate, even if she's rubbish, or will they be so angry at all the Democrat lies - and a truly epic cover-up, deserving criminal charges - they seek to punish the Dems?
I genuinely dunno
Thanks for the right wing Twitter précis. “Deserving criminal charges”. US constitutional and legal expert Leon weighs in.
Is lying to voters about the president's sanity a criminal offence?
I dunno. But I reckon it might be; so I just asked my favourite lawyer
"In general, making false statements about political candidates can potentially violate American election laws"
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
I assume you opposed the Iraq war at the time? Unlike the Conservative opposition of course.
No.
It was the right thing to do.
Saddam was a vile monster and it was right to get regime change.
No it wasn't. It was a sovereign state. Who are we to invade them because we don't like their government.
No different to Russia invading Ukraine because they don't like their government.
One problem with Biden stepping down now is the millions of dollars he has raised. He's out raised a ton. I don't think (although someone correct me if I'm wrong) he can just hand that over to Harris?
Yes, he can, because its a joint ticket raising money. It's one of the big arguments in her favour
Putin was held at bay while Trump was in the White House, but after a summit meeting with Biden, he launched a full-scale invasion.
Whatever you think of Biden or Trump as individuals, it's a point of fact that Biden, not Trump, failed to deter the invasion.
Preparations for the invasion began before Biden was even elected. At least by early 2020, and likely earlier than that. Now you could argue that Biden didn't deter it, but it certainly looks like Putin would have attacked on Trump's watch if he had be re-elected.
Putin did not attack when Trump was POTUS, he did when Biden was there
It MIGHT not be Biden's fault but generally politicians get the blame for what happens on their watch. Biden failed to deter Putin
At that summit meeting between the US and Russian presidents it needed someone willing to bluff.
Putin should have been told that if he went ahead with the invasion, it wouldn’t just be like last time with sanctions and arms shipments. Maybe he would have called America’s bluff anyway, but he didn’t even have that element of uncertainty. He knew what the essential parameters of the West’s response would be.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
I assume you opposed the Iraq war at the time? Unlike the Conservative opposition of course.
No.
It was the right thing to do.
Saddam was a vile monster and it was right to get regime change.
No it wasn't. It was a sovereign state. Who are we to invade them because we don't like their government.
No different to Russia invading Ukraine because they don't like their government.
Its totally different.
Dictatorships that are murdering and abusing the populace are different to free democracies choosing a path you dislike.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
Necklace, Covid, Lab Leak, Biden Senile, Nordstream, Ukraine not winning, Aliens really DID become a major issue, and THAT technology, and so much more
I call the big ones right. Apart from Southgate
What the PB centrist twats lack is imagination, and creativity. You need these to extrapolate, and to see beyond the lies told to the herd, which most of PB is: a herd
I am the wolf that howls on the crag, sometimes maddening, but wild and free; you are the ewe that bleats in the field, then gets its head stuck in a fence. ITS JUST A STAMMER
Oh yes the necklace. They don't come much bigger than that do they? Shaped the whole political debate for years that one.
Well done on spotting Covid btw - the rest of us missed it altogether.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
Necklace, Covid, Lab Leak, Biden Senile, Nordstream, Ukraine not winning, Aliens really DID become a major issue, and THAT technology, and so much more
I call the big ones right. Apart from Southgate
What the PB centrist twats lack is imagination, and creativity. You need these to extrapolate, and to see beyond the lies told to the herd, which most of PB is: a herd
I am the wolf that howls on the crag, sometimes maddening, but wild and free; you are the ewe that bleats in the field, then gets its head stuck in a fence. ITS JUST A STAMMER
Speaking as a PB centrist twat I personally feel blessed that you debase yourself by lowering yourself down to my twatty level to offer such nuggets of insight.
Well that's very generous of you, and also wise and insightful, I salute your sentiments; you are a jolly good man and also you have a ghost in your workplace, which is brilliant
Three ghosts darling. Never undersell the features...
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
I assume you opposed the Iraq war at the time? Unlike the Conservative opposition of course.
Yes. I marched.
And I don't know if you have noticed, probably not, but your position has slipped with that post from Blair - serious grown up politician to Blair - no more morally vacuous and disgusting than IDS. LOL.
Top tip: brown Asians have as much of a right not to be murdered as black Africans have to go to the beach.
My position has not slipped one iota - Blair was a serious politician, but he made a judgement which I think he got wrong. For my own part I always opposed the Iraq war and stopped voting Labour for many years as a result. But I would never contend that the Iraq war was as egregious as apartheid, since you brought that up.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
Necklace, Covid, Lab Leak, Biden Senile, Nordstream, Ukraine not winning, Aliens really DID become a major issue, and THAT technology, and so much more
I call the big ones right. Apart from Southgate
What the PB centrist twats lack is imagination, and creativity. You need these to extrapolate, and to see beyond the lies told to the herd, which most of PB is: a herd
I am the wolf that howls on the crag, sometimes maddening, but wild and free; you are the ewe that bleats in the field, then gets its head stuck in a fence. ITS JUST A STAMMER
Oh yes the necklace. They don't come much bigger than that do they? Shaped the whole political debate for years that one.
Well done on spotting Covid btw - the rest of us missed it altogether.
I AM THE WOLF
Leon at his prime. Sadly it all went downhill from here
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
Necklace, Covid, Lab Leak, Biden Senile, Nordstream, Ukraine not winning, Aliens really DID become a major issue, and THAT technology, and so much more
I call the big ones right. Apart from Southgate
What the PB centrist twats lack is imagination, and creativity. You need these to extrapolate, and to see beyond the lies told to the herd, which most of PB is: a herd
I am the wolf that howls on the crag, sometimes maddening, but wild and free; you are the ewe that bleats in the field, then gets its head stuck in a fence. ITS JUST A STAMMER
Speaking as a PB centrist twat I personally feel blessed that you debase yourself by lowering yourself down to my twatty level to offer such nuggets of insight.
Well that's very generous of you, and also wise and insightful, I salute your sentiments; you are a jolly good man and also you have a ghost in your workplace, which is brilliant
Three ghosts darling. Never undersell the features...
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
I assume you opposed the Iraq war at the time? Unlike the Conservative opposition of course.
No.
It was the right thing to do.
Saddam was a vile monster and it was right to get regime change.
I thought you were a libertarian? So, you should have the liberty to enjoy your own land irrespective of the effect on others, but 100k Iraqis forfeit the right to enjoy their lives and families (and land) because another Iraqi is personally repugnant to you? Wow
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
Necklace, Covid, Lab Leak, Biden Senile, Nordstream, Ukraine not winning, Aliens really DID become a major issue, and THAT technology, and so much more
I call the big ones right. Apart from Southgate
What the PB centrist twats lack is imagination, and creativity. You need these to extrapolate, and to see beyond the lies told to the herd, which most of PB is: a herd
I am the wolf that howls on the crag, sometimes maddening, but wild and free; you are the ewe that bleats in the field, then gets its head stuck in a fence. ITS JUST A STAMMER
Oh yes the necklace. They don't come much bigger than that do they? Shaped the whole political debate for years that one.
Well done on spotting Covid btw - the rest of us missed it altogether.
I AM THE WOLF
Leon at his prime. Sadly it all went downhill from here
That actually IS me. You can't just dox PBers like that
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
I assume you opposed the Iraq war at the time? Unlike the Conservative opposition of course.
No.
It was the right thing to do.
Saddam was a vile monster and it was right to get regime change.
I thought you were a libertarian? So, you should have the liberty to enjoy your own land irrespective of the effect on others, but 100k Iraqis forfeit the right to enjoy their lives and families (and land) because another Iraqi is personally repugnant to you? Wow
Iraqis deserve the right to live in a free democracy and not a totalitarian dictatorship.
One problem with Biden stepping down now is the millions of dollars he has raised. He's out raised a ton. I don't think (although someone correct me if I'm wrong) he can just hand that over to Harris?
He can hand them over to Harris, because she is on the ticket as his Vice President. Donations are to the Biden-Harris campaign.
He could not hand them over so easily to - say - Pete Buttigieg.
That said, donations can easily be returned. And people who make donations are into the whole buying influence thing, and so I suspect that 90% of donors (particularly big money ones) would happily just round trip money into a new campaign.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
I assume you opposed the Iraq war at the time? Unlike the Conservative opposition of course.
No.
It was the right thing to do.
Saddam was a vile monster and it was right to get regime change.
I thought you were a libertarian? So, you should have the liberty to enjoy your own land irrespective of the effect on others, but 100k Iraqis forfeit the right to enjoy their lives and families (and land) because another Iraqi is personally repugnant to you? Wow
Iraqis deserve the right to live in a free democracy and not a totalitarian dictatorship.
Sure, but the West can't be the installer of that democracy, it has to come from within.
Putin was held at bay while Trump was in the White House, but after a summit meeting with Biden, he launched a full-scale invasion.
Whatever you think of Biden or Trump as individuals, it's a point of fact that Biden, not Trump, failed to deter the invasion.
Preparations for the invasion began before Biden was even elected. At least by early 2020, and likely earlier than that. Now you could argue that Biden didn't deter it, but it certainly looks like Putin would have attacked on Trump's watch if he had be re-elected.
Putin did not attack when Trump was POTUS, he did when Biden was there
It MIGHT not be Biden's fault but generally politicians get the blame for what happens on their watch. Biden failed to deter Putin
At that summit meeting between the US and Russian presidents it needed someone willing to bluff.
Putin should have been told that if he went ahead with the invasion, it wouldn’t just be like last time with sanctions and arms shipments. Maybe he would have called America’s bluff anyway, but he didn’t even have that element of uncertainty. He knew what the essential parameters of the West’s response would be.
I think that's right. And to which you need to add that he had just seen America run away from Afghanistan.
FWIW, I suspect that things would not have been any different had Trump (who - let us not forget - praised Putin for the invasion) had been President. Except, of course, that NATO itself might not have existed at that point.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
I assume you opposed the Iraq war at the time? Unlike the Conservative opposition of course.
No.
It was the right thing to do.
Saddam was a vile monster and it was right to get regime change.
I thought you were a libertarian? So, you should have the liberty to enjoy your own land irrespective of the effect on others, but 100k Iraqis forfeit the right to enjoy their lives and families (and land) because another Iraqi is personally repugnant to you? Wow
I supported the war, for utterly ludicrous reasons (in retrospect). Because the French opposed it, and the Chinese, and because wars are exciting, and because Saddam was a c*nt, and because I genuinely trusted the British PM not to egregiously lie to me about something THAT serious
I was hideously wrong and it's the worsr political call I have made in my life. Not that it matters one scintilla but I am still sorry for what I said and did
From this I have learned
1. The French and Chinese are often right, and we're not 2. Wars may be exciting, but come on, get a grip 3. Saddam was a c*nt, but sometimes you have to tolerate that as the alternative is worse? 4. British Prine Ministers WILL lie about tremendously important things
The saddest is point 4. And I still reckon Blair is one of the smartest PMs of recent times, but wow, what a moral calamity
This is a self inflicted wound. We will have higher energy prices as a consequence.
Idiot.
Winter Blackouts in a long cold high pressure spell are already more than possible.
He needs to remember what Power Cuts did to Heaths Government.
Could you let us know what proportion of UK electricity generation is from oil?
It is not just oil but gas as well. 32% of our power generation was from gas last year.
The UK spent almost £50 billion on oil and gas imports last year. This decision will not reduce consumption by a single barrel but will just increase our balance of trade deficit and make us more reliable on imports, many from unstable places whose environmental controls are far below our own.
It will also do immense damage to our petrochemical industry. Good luck building using electric cars without hydrocarbons.
It is a fecking stupid thing to do with no redeeming factors. Virtue signalling to a suicidal level.
But the decision is not about what we do now, but about what we do some years in the future.
Yes and some years in the future we are still going to need petrochemicals, NHS medicines and everything else the industry supports.
We should be looking to end imports and the fungible profits that go to Russia and the Middle East before we look to cut our own production.
Amazing that people do not realise that a ban on using oil and gas as fuel would just result in it being burned off in flares and huge inflation in (and shortages of) the million and one other essential things made from oil as they would no longer be subsidised by profits from the petrol and gas distilled from the crude oil.
I am normally a really measured poster, but I do believe that this is the biggest load of tosh I've read on PB.
Oil and gas are going to be continued to be produced irrespective of whether there is any fuel demand for them*, because they have uses beyond fuel. (Which you get.)
But why would that make them more expensive?
You seem to be suggesting that the supply curve for oil points in a different direction to every other commodity in the world. Can I recommend this excellent piece: http://theoildrum.com/node/2899
* And of course, fuel demand will continue for 100 years anyway, but that's another story.
Are there any non fuel petroleum products which are markedly less damaging than fuel? Plastics don't have a great rep, nor fertilizers
A whole range of medicines. Lubricants, greases, coolants. Modern society simply cannot exist without petroleum products. And plastics are vital for basically the whole of modern infrastructure. Not ghe disposable bottle type stuff but basic stuff like insulation around wiring. The list of things made from petroleum products is truly terrifying in the face of idiots who want us to stop drilling for the stuff.
You don't need oil for this stuff its just acquiring the feedstock from carbon capture or biological means and building up the molecular complexity is much more expensive.
So food and medicines etc. become much more expensive. Good result.
Better result than planet death. When I were a lad it cost a years average salary to fly economy to the US. We got by just fine.
My Great Grandfather used to walk 6 miles to work and 6 miles back again every evening. Doesn't mean we should hope to go back to it. And dying at 40 because ofthe lack of medicines is also something I would much rather avoid. Basically without hydrocarbon products we are back in the mid 19th century as far as technology is concerned.
Calm down. We have a lot of North Sea oil capacity already in place. This is *new* drilling (which may or may not yield new reserves BTW). Plenty of hydrocarbons for essentials for many years IF we stop burning FFs for electricity and fully transition to low carbon sources and renewables.
If we simply keep trying to suck more FFs from the North Sea we maintain our reliance and put ourselves more at risk from foreign dependency in the longer term.
Or are you seriously suggesting that we are so helplessly addicted to oil that we have no choice but to keep sourcing the stuff even if it kills all of us, boiling frog style?
Sorry but you are talking absolute bollocks. Take from someone who has spent the last 25 years (out of a 35 year oil industry career) actually planning field developments for more than 20 different oil companies around the world. Oil companies are already pulling out of the UK because of the last decade of Government idiocy, shutting down platforms well in advance of actually running out of oil in the fields and generally turning their backs on the UK. The licence ban will just speed that process up and drive out more of the companies.
And to repeat. Banning new field devleopments will not stop 1 additional barrel of oil from being burned. We will just get it from places where they are happy to dump their drilling fluids in the sea and poison all the wildlife for decades to come.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
I assume you opposed the Iraq war at the time? Unlike the Conservative opposition of course.
No.
It was the right thing to do.
Saddam was a vile monster and it was right to get regime change.
I thought you were a libertarian? So, you should have the liberty to enjoy your own land irrespective of the effect on others, but 100k Iraqis forfeit the right to enjoy their lives and families (and land) because another Iraqi is personally repugnant to you? Wow
Iraqis deserve the right to live in a free democracy and not a totalitarian dictatorship.
Sure, but the West can't be the installer of that democracy, it has to come from within.
Like the Allies couldn't ensure a democracy in Western Germany, it had to come from within?
Externally defeating a dictatorship doesn't guarantee a good democracy, we can't do that, but we could upset the apple cart and remove a dictator and give the locals space to do the right thing.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
I assume you opposed the Iraq war at the time? Unlike the Conservative opposition of course.
Yes. I marched.
And I don't know if you have noticed, probably not, but your position has slipped with that post from Blair - serious grown up politician to Blair - no more morally vacuous and disgusting than IDS. LOL.
Top tip: brown Asians have as much of a right not to be murdered as black Africans have to go to the beach.
My position has not slipped one iota - Blair was a serious politician, but he made a judgement which I think he got wrong. For my own part I always opposed the Iraq war and stopped voting Labour for many years as a result. But I would never contend that the Iraq war was as egregious as apartheid, since you brought that up.
Truly nauseating. Wannsee conference in error of judgement shock.
One problem with Biden stepping down now is the millions of dollars he has raised. He's out raised a ton. I don't think (although someone correct me if I'm wrong) he can just hand that over to Harris?
He can hand them over to Harris, because she is on the ticket as his Vice President. Donations are to the Biden-Harris campaign.
He could not hand them over so easily to - say - Pete Buttigieg.
That said, donations can easily be returned. And people who make donations are into the whole buying influence thing, and so I suspect that 90% of donors (particularly big money ones) would happily just round trip money into a new campaign.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
Necklace, Covid, Lab Leak, Biden Senile, Nordstream, Ukraine not winning, Aliens really DID become a major issue, and THAT technology, and so much more
I call the big ones right. Apart from Southgate
What the PB centrist twats lack is imagination, and creativity. You need these to extrapolate, and to see beyond the lies told to the herd, which most of PB is: a herd
I am the wolf that howls on the crag, sometimes maddening, but wild and free; you are the ewe that bleats in the field, then gets its head stuck in a fence. ITS JUST A STAMMER
Speaking as a PB centrist twat I personally feel blessed that you debase yourself by lowering yourself down to my twatty level to offer such nuggets of insight.
Well that's very generous of you, and also wise and insightful, I salute your sentiments; you are a jolly good man and also you have a ghost in your workplace, which is brilliant
Three ghosts darling. Never undersell the features...
Three?????
OOOH, I love a ghost. Any recent occurrences?
Three distinct ghosts we have identified so far: 1 Bloke who we believe to be the ghost of a bank worker who died her in the 1890s. Seen repeatedly, wearing white shirt and black trousers 2 Disembodied voice of a little girl. Scottish accent. Only ever heard, but at one point by a room full of people. 3 Black cat shape who freaks our living cats out. Looks like a black cat. Isn't.
Plus a long list of poltergeist activity - footsteps upstairs when building is empty, doors being slammed, ancient looking nails being dropped in the middle of the floor etc etc etc.
Why did reform get almost 15% in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East? They didn't get near that much in the other Tory seats in the north east of Scotland
Much more Brexity. Buckie, Fraserburgh, Peterhead. WWC communities. Fishing.
One problem with Biden stepping down now is the millions of dollars he has raised. He's out raised a ton. I don't think (although someone correct me if I'm wrong) he can just hand that over to Harris?
He can hand them over to Harris, because she is on the ticket as his Vice President. Donations are to the Biden-Harris campaign.
He could not hand them over so easily to - say - Pete Buttigieg.
That said, donations can easily be returned. And people who make donations are into the whole buying influence thing, and so I suspect that 90% of donors (particularly big money ones) would happily just round trip money into a new campaign.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
Necklace, Covid, Lab Leak, Biden Senile, Nordstream, Ukraine not winning, Aliens really DID become a major issue, and THAT technology, and so much more
I call the big ones right. Apart from Southgate
What the PB centrist twats lack is imagination, and creativity. You need these to extrapolate, and to see beyond the lies told to the herd, which most of PB is: a herd
I am the wolf that howls on the crag, sometimes maddening, but wild and free; you are the ewe that bleats in the field, then gets its head stuck in a fence. ITS JUST A STAMMER
Speaking as a PB centrist twat I personally feel blessed that you debase yourself by lowering yourself down to my twatty level to offer such nuggets of insight.
Well that's very generous of you, and also wise and insightful, I salute your sentiments; you are a jolly good man and also you have a ghost in your workplace, which is brilliant
Three ghosts darling. Never undersell the features...
Three?????
OOOH, I love a ghost. Any recent occurrences?
Three distinct ghosts we have identified so far: 1 Bloke who we believe to be the ghost of a bank worker who died her in the 1890s. Seen repeatedly, wearing white shirt and black trousers 2 Disembodied voice of a little girl. Scottish accent. Only ever heard, but at one point by a room full of people. 3 Black cat shape who freaks our living cats out. Looks like a black cat. Isn't.
Plus a long list of poltergeist activity - footsteps upstairs when building is empty, doors being slammed, ancient looking nails being dropped in the middle of the floor etc etc etc.
Its been pretty quiet recently though...
Superb! I'm quite jealous
I've only ever had one truly unsettling experience (which I live-streamed to PB, from my freaky Louisiana slave plantation)
Do please keep us updated if the eeriness continues. Are you sure it's not angry Scot Nats trying to drive you out, a la Scooby Doo?
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
I assume you opposed the Iraq war at the time? Unlike the Conservative opposition of course.
No.
It was the right thing to do.
Saddam was a vile monster and it was right to get regime change.
No it wasn't. It was a sovereign state. Who are we to invade them because we don't like their government.
No different to Russia invading Ukraine because they don't like their government.
Its totally different.
Dictatorships that are murdering and abusing the populace are different to free democracies choosing a path you dislike.
Who are we to decide if another state is a suitable government or not? It if none of our business.
What is to stop China deciding that we are a vile dictatorship and invading us if you go down that road.
Either everyone accepts sovereign states are precisely that, sovereign. Or no states are sovereign.
Hence why the states containing the majority of the worlds population are not bothered about Putin. They think we are stinking hypocrites.
The Spectator Index @spectatorindex JUST IN: CNN reports that Democrats have been 'stunned by how rapidly things have unraveled for Biden in the last 24 hours'
This is a self inflicted wound. We will have higher energy prices as a consequence.
Idiot.
Winter Blackouts in a long cold high pressure spell are already more than possible.
He needs to remember what Power Cuts did to Heaths Government.
Could you let us know what proportion of UK electricity generation is from oil?
It is not just oil but gas as well. 32% of our power generation was from gas last year.
The UK spent almost £50 billion on oil and gas imports last year. This decision will not reduce consumption by a single barrel but will just increase our balance of trade deficit and make us more reliable on imports, many from unstable places whose environmental controls are far below our own.
It will also do immense damage to our petrochemical industry. Good luck building using electric cars without hydrocarbons.
It is a fecking stupid thing to do with no redeeming factors. Virtue signalling to a suicidal level.
But the decision is not about what we do now, but about what we do some years in the future.
Yes and some years in the future we are still going to need petrochemicals, NHS medicines and everything else the industry supports.
We should be looking to end imports and the fungible profits that go to Russia and the Middle East before we look to cut our own production.
Amazing that people do not realise that a ban on using oil and gas as fuel would just result in it being burned off in flares and huge inflation in (and shortages of) the million and one other essential things made from oil as they would no longer be subsidised by profits from the petrol and gas distilled from the crude oil.
I am normally a really measured poster, but I do believe that this is the biggest load of tosh I've read on PB.
Oil and gas are going to be continued to be produced irrespective of whether there is any fuel demand for them*, because they have uses beyond fuel. (Which you get.)
But why would that make them more expensive?
You seem to be suggesting that the supply curve for oil points in a different direction to every other commodity in the world. Can I recommend this excellent piece: http://theoildrum.com/node/2899
* And of course, fuel demand will continue for 100 years anyway, but that's another story.
Are there any non fuel petroleum products which are markedly less damaging than fuel? Plastics don't have a great rep, nor fertilizers
Fertilisers are critical for ensuring people are fed.
But if you want a different sector how about pharmaceuticals? 99% of pharmaceuticals contain petrochemicals, so shut down petrochemicals you shut down the NHS and over the counter the counter medicines too.
Hope you don't need a paracetamol or ibuprofen any time soon, let alone anything more serious.
I remember being at an oil conference about fifteen years ago, and a Canadian E&P executive stood up and said "Oil and gas are so essential for a modern economy that it makes me crazy to think that we just burn the stuff."
Yes, the move towards electric cars is going to reduce the amount of fuel we need, but given how difficult finding entirely new sources of oil is, that's rather good news. Instead of having to replace 5 million barrels a day of production each year, perhaps it's only 1 or 2 million,
Its more difficult than it was but not that difficult yet.
The gradual rampdown through market forces (as opposed to idiot ministers banning exploration) is fine at first, but becomes a major problem when profitable fuel sales decline to the point that the waste sludge left over from distilling off gas and petroleum becomes *the* product and has to shoulder the exporation and drilling costs.
A bit like branch railway lines. They were built for goods. Passenger services used them but were only viable when the goods paid for the infrastructure. When the goods went the passenger services became an economic basket case.
In this parable the Petrol/Gas is the goods traffic, the other uses for oil the passenger traffic and the oil industry the railway.
I'm sorry, but this is still utter gibberish.
Ultimately, this is simple economics and everything else is flim flam. If there is demand for oil and gas for petrochemicals, then there will be supply. The idea that the supply will be more expensive because there is less total demand is utter rubbish. (And the idea there is cross subsidy is just insane. Why would Shell sell petrochemical products at a loss to relative to fuel.)
Sorry to belabour the point, but crude oil is a bunch of long chain hydrocarbons of various different flavors. But those long chain hydrocarbons can be either split up or joined together.
At one extreme end of this, you have the shortest chain hydrocarbon of all (CH4, methane) being chained together to make low sulphur diesel. And at the other, you have cracking where longer chain hydrocarbons are reduced to smaller ones.
In the event fuel demand were to fall to zero*, then you would still be able to use all of the contents of the barrel of oil for chemical purposes. So, even ignoring economics, your characterization is simply wrong.
* Which it won't
Why then was most gas flared off until the LPG industry made it usable?
Errr, because getting gas from fields to where it was used was difficult. It's a lot harder to store than a simple liquid.
Thats the whole point. I'm making. If it can't be sold off then it becomes a waste product. Its still produced when you extract oil but dosent contribute. So the rest of the oil products are proportionately more expensive.
No because that is only the case under the economics of the time. So for example we used to flare of gas on all the North Sea rigs. It wasn't worth doing anything else. Until the Government said you can't do that and people actually looked at it and realised that it was far more useful and cost effective to use it. So we reinject it into wells to drive the poil out or use it to run the turbines that power the platforms. Go stand on Leman Alpha and it is like standing next to the main runway at Heathrow. All powered by gas.
There is a small amount of flaring still done but that is safety valve stuff. You change the economic environment and it changes your outlook. Gas is no longer a waste product.
And if Petroluem also becsme a waste product then the viability of the heavier feedstock "sludge" like Napatha that is used to make plastics is undermined. They would have to bear a much greater proportion of the exploration/drilling costs or if the market wouldn't wear the increased price then production would cease and there would be increasing shortages until the price did go up enough.
Similarly the fertilizer is made from petroleum coke, another otherwise waste product from refining petroleum which if there is no use for the petroleum has to bear the cost.
You cant just switch to making fertiliser and plastics from petroleum.
Well, let's leave aside fertilizer. I mean you could make fertilizer from oil, but it would be a pretty stupid thing (economically) to do, given the world has massive amounts of natural gas - from existing conventional fields, to tight gas fields in the US, to coal seam methane.
Your basic contention is that you cannot use all of a barrel of oil for petrochemical purposes, and that is simply chemically (and economically) wrong.
I would point out that there are three people telling you this: One is a man who has worked in the oil & gas industry for (at least) 30 years, much of it on rigs in the North Sea. Another is a physics teacher who, one would think, knows a little bit about the various chemical reactions. And me, who has financed billions of dollars of oil and gas projects over the years.
One problem with Biden stepping down now is the millions of dollars he has raised. He's out raised a ton. I don't think (although someone correct me if I'm wrong) he can just hand that over to Harris?
He can hand them over to Harris, because she is on the ticket as his Vice President. Donations are to the Biden-Harris campaign.
He could not hand them over so easily to - say - Pete Buttigieg.
That said, donations can easily be returned. And people who make donations are into the whole buying influence thing, and so I suspect that 90% of donors (particularly big money ones) would happily just round trip money into a new campaign.
Yep. This is not the problem.
The problem will be convincing Biden.
De Nile is not just a river in Egypt.
Biden is only as lucid as what it says on his auto cue. If the people propping him up stop putting stuff on it he is toast. He is without agency
The Spectator Index @spectatorindex JUST IN: CNN reports that Democrats have been 'stunned by how rapidly things have unraveled for Biden in the last 24 hours'
Not sure why they should be stunned.
This was over the minute the debate last Thursday week ended.
If Biden contrives to stand (SPOILER: he won't, it's over) all Trump has to do is run a poster campaign with the quote FROM Biden "it's just my brain"
Then underneath, IT'S JUST HIS BRAIN
With a pic of him looking utterly vacant and demented at the debate
A landslide will ensue. But Biden is going to resign fairly shortly
Its all over bar the formalities.
Harris is the 47th President of the USA.
Leon will be singing her praises I'm sure .......
I reckon she's pretty mediocre, at best, but there are far worse candidates: like Joe Biden and Donald Trump
She is sane, and she can delegate, and she can appoint clever staff to run things
But again the unanswered question is How will US voters react when the Dems admit "yeah we lied about Biden for a year at least"
It seems likely that the Biden's team should have come clean some time ago and are therefore culpable, but I think you overestimate the impact that will have.
It will be largely forgotten by November.
You are far too complacent
Possibly. But your drama queenery beats my complacency hands down.
Except I am consistently right about almost everything, and you are not just wrong, you are tediously wrong
Liz Truss, Reform, Aliens, French 2nd round elections, Gareth Southgate, 'Something huge about to come out that I can't tell you about', Virginia Woolf's 'granddaughter' ffs...
I prefer any of that to Dead Iraqis, we all make mistakes lol.
I assume you opposed the Iraq war at the time? Unlike the Conservative opposition of course.
No.
It was the right thing to do.
Saddam was a vile monster and it was right to get regime change.
I thought you were a libertarian? So, you should have the liberty to enjoy your own land irrespective of the effect on others, but 100k Iraqis forfeit the right to enjoy their lives and families (and land) because another Iraqi is personally repugnant to you? Wow
Iraqis deserve the right to live in a free democracy and not a totalitarian dictatorship.
Sure, but the West can't be the installer of that democracy, it has to come from within.
Like the Allies couldn't ensure a democracy in Western Germany, it had to come from within?
Externally defeating a dictatorship doesn't guarantee a good democracy, we can't do that, but we could upset the apple cart and remove a dictator and give the locals space to do the right thing.
Very wrong.
WW2 was defending against territorial aggression; had Hitler not started to invade his neighbours his dictatorship would have been left alone by the free democracies. (See Franco's Spain.)
Since the only way that the war could be ended was in the total destruction of the Third Reich, something had to be put in place after the Allies moved in: democracy in West Germany, communism in the East of course.
WW2 was not about rolling out democracy, that was simply a positive side-effect.
The Spectator Index @spectatorindex JUST IN: CNN reports that Democrats have been 'stunned by how rapidly things have unraveled for Biden in the last 24 hours'
Odd thing to say, it's unravelling because of Democrats.
One problem with Biden stepping down now is the millions of dollars he has raised. He's out raised a ton. I don't think (although someone correct me if I'm wrong) he can just hand that over to Harris?
He can hand them over to Harris, because she is on the ticket as his Vice President. Donations are to the Biden-Harris campaign.
He could not hand them over so easily to - say - Pete Buttigieg.
That said, donations can easily be returned. And people who make donations are into the whole buying influence thing, and so I suspect that 90% of donors (particularly big money ones) would happily just round trip money into a new campaign.
Yep. This is not the problem.
The problem will be convincing Biden.
De Nile is not just a river in Egypt.
Biden is only as lucid as what it says on his auto cue. If the people propping him up stop putting stuff on it he is toast. He is without agency
Maybe someone needs to put up "I resign" on the autocue?
Comments
EDIT - a live poll on the FT asking if he should stand down. 88% agree that he should.
For when he falls over.
Your basic contention is that you cannot use all of a barrel of oil for petrochemical purposes, and that is simply chemically (and economically) wrong.
I would point out that there are three people telling you this: One is a man who has worked in the oil & gas industry for (at least) 30 years, much of it on rigs in the North Sea. Another is a physics teacher who, one would think, knows a little bit about the various chemical reactions. And me, who has financed billions of dollars of oil and gas projects over the years.
France descending further in to chaos. Everybody wants to veto everyone else..
https://www.lefigaro.fr/elections/legislatives/en-direct-resultats-legislatives-nouvelle-journee-de-tractations-pour-former-un-gouvernement-20240711
I guess I'm talking about a few million swing voters in a few crucial states. Will they be relieved they now have a sane Dem candidate, even if she's rubbish, or will they be so angry at all the Democrat lies - and a truly epic cover-up, deserving criminal charges - they seek to punish the Dems?
I genuinely dunno
A newly elected Labour MP spent her first day opposing a housing development despite the Government's vow to build more homes.
Sarah Coombes announced she was taking a break from Parliament to speak at a planning appeal on behalf of residents who are trying to stop fewer than 200 houses and a country park being built on farmland in the Black Country.
She posted on social media a photo of locals holding up signs reading 'say no to housing in the green belt' and 'we need to keep our prime quality farmland'.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13621637/Labour-MP-opposes-plans-new-homes-constituency.html
But I fear we might be well into 'stubborn old man' territory.
I thought it was mad dumbass rednecks who elected Trump, whereas Bidens voters are intellectual upright beacons of truth ? So wouldnt the Biden voters worry about being serially lied to ?
This has never happened before, a sitting one term president (who can argue quite convincingly he's done a decent job) being gouged out of office because he's senile, and - not only that - many senior people in his party have known this for a year, but they lied to the American electorate, and - worse - wanted to foist this madman on the voters for a second term
That's pretty explosive, and it richly feeds so many GOP conspiracy theories about the American Left
Politicians who are senile is, even in the USA, not.
The set of Democrats who think he should reconsider his decision to stay in the race has grown to include aides, operatives and officials tasked with guiding his campaign to victory."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/biden-reelection-insiders-no-path-debate-rcna161296
We clearly have different values.
On the plus side Tony has made an absolute killing ( sorry for the pun ) as a Middle East Peace Envoy.
This is genuinely disgusting stuff of which you should be ashamed. Put on segregated buses in South Africa equals boo, bombed to death by good ole mistake-makin' Tone, who's counting?
He'd have done exactly the same thing had Trump been elected.
He's a scorpion, its his nature.
You can't say you're too far gone to do another four years, but the next six months are just OK.
Also the Dems will want to put Harris in the Oval Office NOW so she has a presidential aura and can use that to boost her credibility (which she sorely lacks)
LBJ famously withdrew himself from the 1968 election but remained as POTUS and any two-term President (Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama) remains President until the inauguration of the successful election candidate in the following January.
Since it's still rumours, I'm still keeping him green and just laying off a tiny bit.
Call me cautious. May look dumb by Monday.
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/plus/politics/market/1.176878927
Peter Welch, the state's junior senator, called on Biden to end his campaign for re-election.
https://vtdigger.org/2024/07/09/as-concerns-over-joe-bidens-age-mount-vermonts-delegation-weighs-how-best-to-support-the-democratic-ticket/
I'm tending towards the step down now option though; the momentum is building and will soon be unstoppable.
I call the big ones right. Apart from Southgate
What the PB centrist twats lack is imagination, and creativity. You need these to extrapolate, and to see beyond the lies told to the herd, which most of PB is: a herd
I am the wolf that howls on the crag, sometimes maddening, but wild and free; you are the ewe that bleats in the field, then gets its head stuck in a fence. ITS JUST A STAMMER
Harris has a better chance being the incumbent.
It was the right thing to do.
Saddam was a vile monster and it was right to get regime change.
Putin did not attack when Trump was POTUS, he did when Biden was there
It MIGHT not be Biden's fault but generally politicians get the blame for what happens on their watch. Biden failed to deter Putin
I would also point out that this is not the first time this has happened. Towards the end of Reagan's second term in office, he was also suffering from evidently decreased mental acuity, and was kept increasingly out of the spotlight. It didn't stop George HW Bush becoming President.
The people most exercised by this are the people who - as you say - were already in thrall to conspiracy theories about the (relative) Left in America. So, how much incremental impact is there, compared to the obvious benefit of having a candidate capable of stringing a whole sentence together.
Vote Trump, get another pandemic.
“Deserving criminal charges”. US constitutional and legal expert Leon weighs in.
Well done on spotting Covid btw - the rest of us missed it altogether.
This article by Ann Clwyd helped convince me that the Iraq War was the right thing to do.
Nothing since has changed my mind.
War is hell, but so was Saddam's Iraq.
And I don't know if you have noticed, probably not, but your position has slipped with that post from Blair - serious grown up politician to Blair - no more morally vacuous and disgusting than IDS. LOL.
Top tip: brown Asians have as much of a right not to be murdered as black Africans have to go to the beach.
Congressman Greg Stanton calls on Biden to quit. Sky News.
I dunno. But I reckon it might be; so I just asked my favourite lawyer
"In general, making false statements about political candidates can potentially violate American election laws"
No different to Russia invading Ukraine because they don't like their government.
I have:
John Ossoff £4 @ 112.28
Andy Beshear £14 @ 20.71
Anyone else would have to start from scratch
Putin should have been told that if he went ahead with the invasion, it wouldn’t just be like last time with sanctions and arms shipments. Maybe he would have called America’s bluff anyway, but he didn’t even have that element of uncertainty. He knew what the essential parameters of the West’s response would be.
Dictatorships that are murdering and abusing the populace are different to free democracies choosing a path you dislike.
OK you're not ALWAYS dull, and that was witty
OOOH, I love a ghost. Any recent occurrences?
Mods!
He could not hand them over so easily to - say - Pete Buttigieg.
That said, donations can easily be returned. And people who make donations are into the whole buying influence thing, and so I suspect that 90% of donors (particularly big money ones) would happily just round trip money into a new campaign.
FWIW, I suspect that things would not have been any different had Trump (who - let us not forget - praised Putin for the invasion) had been President. Except, of course, that NATO itself might not have existed at that point.
I was hideously wrong and it's the worsr political call I have made in my life. Not that it matters one scintilla but I am still sorry for what I said and did
From this I have learned
1. The French and Chinese are often right, and we're not
2. Wars may be exciting, but come on, get a grip
3. Saddam was a c*nt, but sometimes you have to tolerate that as the alternative is worse?
4. British Prine Ministers WILL lie about tremendously important things
The saddest is point 4. And I still reckon Blair is one of the smartest PMs of recent times, but wow, what a moral calamity
And to repeat. Banning new field devleopments will not stop 1 additional barrel of oil from being burned. We will just get it from places where they are happy to dump their drilling fluids in the sea and poison all the wildlife for decades to come.
Externally defeating a dictatorship doesn't guarantee a good democracy, we can't do that, but we could upset the apple cart and remove a dictator and give the locals space to do the right thing.
If it has to be done, tis best done quick
One Cabinet secretary tells CNN “they are uncertain of Biden’s condition because they so rarely see him.”
1 Bloke who we believe to be the ghost of a bank worker who died her in the 1890s. Seen repeatedly, wearing white shirt and black trousers
2 Disembodied voice of a little girl. Scottish accent. Only ever heard, but at one point by a room full of people.
3 Black cat shape who freaks our living cats out. Looks like a black cat. Isn't.
Plus a long list of poltergeist activity - footsteps upstairs when building is empty, doors being slammed, ancient looking nails being dropped in the middle of the floor etc etc etc.
Its been pretty quiet recently though...
De Nile is not just a river in Egypt.
Should have thought of Ossoff.
I've only ever had one truly unsettling experience (which I live-streamed to PB, from my freaky Louisiana slave plantation)
Do please keep us updated if the eeriness continues. Are you sure it's not angry Scot Nats trying to drive you out, a la Scooby Doo?
What is to stop China deciding that we are a vile dictatorship and invading us if you go down that road.
Either everyone accepts sovereign states are precisely that, sovereign. Or no states are sovereign.
Hence why the states containing the majority of the worlds population are not bothered about Putin. They think we are stinking hypocrites.
And they are right.
The Spectator Index
@spectatorindex
JUST IN: CNN reports that Democrats have been 'stunned by how rapidly things have unraveled for Biden in the last 24 hours'
This was over the minute the debate last Thursday week ended.
Or should have been.
Biden can't win now. That is the end of it.
WW2 was defending against territorial aggression; had Hitler not started to invade his neighbours his dictatorship would have been left alone by the free democracies. (See Franco's Spain.)
Since the only way that the war could be ended was in the total destruction of the Third Reich, something had to be put in place after the Allies moved in: democracy in West Germany, communism in the East of course.
WW2 was not about rolling out democracy, that was simply a positive side-effect.