I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely eye watering and quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs.
oh no. not second hand car dealers. oh shit.
Tbf, it would be annoying if we couldn't buy or sell 2nd hand cars.
It would be quite funny to see WeBuyAnyCar go bust, though.
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
A grim moment
Don't be daft. The Democrats are not Stalin.
Nor is Trump Hitler. But you guys constantly use this language - “Republicans are Nazis, Trump = Hitler” etc
In the end it might be self-fulfilling
I don't think I've ever said Trump is Hitler. He's a narcissist; he's certainly obsessed with power; he is devoid of empathy. And he's increasingly senile.
But as I've noted, his administration is increasingly adopting the tactics of fascism. And I'll readily admit to comparing Miller with Goebbels.
If you haven't noticed the efforts of the MAGA Republicans to concentrate all political power in the hands of the President, then you haven't been paying attention to US politics.
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely eye watering and quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs.
oh no. not second hand car dealers. oh shit.
Tbf, it would be annoying if we couldn't buy or sell 2nd hand cars.
It would be quite funny to see WeBuyAnyCar go bust, though.
They would be taken over by a private equity firm. WeBuyWeBuyAnyCar.
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - but would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
A grim moment
Which book about Weimar?
I have just started Ullrich's new book on this era: Fateful Hours.
Frank McDonough’s “The Weimar Years” - really good. Only a third of the way in but I’ve learned something new & fascinating on almost every page
It’s beautifully balanced (so far). It shows how a horror like Hitler could logically emerge in a civilised nation - without, in any way, trying to whitewash Nazism
Alternatively went to University; learnt critical thinking
Universities don't do a huge line in critical thinking these days in case you hadn't spotted it.
Only in your opinion
*Clears Throat* IN ANY CASE the poll is little more than a proxy for age. Old people far less likely to be university educated.
Indeed, and in a fair few cases, not even fully secondary educated.
The school leaving age was only raised from 15 to 16 in 1972. The cohort affected by that are aged 70 now. Old, but not insanely so. More amazingly (and this is my favourite 'the recent past is a different country' stat), pupils have only had to stay on long enough to sit their GCSE exams since 1998.
Indeed, many of the local secondary schools still had something called a ROSLA block or wing at the time I went through in the 80s.
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - but would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
A grim moment
Which book about Weimar?
I have just started Ullrich's new book on this era: Fateful Hours.
Frank McDonough’s “The Weimar Years” - really good. Only a third of the way in but I’ve learned something new & fascinating on almost every page
It’s beautifully balanced (so far). It shows how a horror like Hitler could logically emerge in a civilised nation - without, in any way, trying to whitewash Nazism
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely eye watering and quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs.
oh no. not second hand car dealers. oh shit.
Tbf, it would be annoying if we couldn't buy or sell 2nd hand cars.
It would be quite funny to see WeBuyAnyCar go bust, though.
My son in law works for them at the moment, so it wouldn't be that funny. Their margins are much lower that I expected because they sell the cars they buy through auctions and they are bought up by garages and second hand dealers on the cheap.
Nation Park officials under an executive Presidential order dismantle exhibits commenting on the history of slavery from the President's House in Independence National Park in Philadelphia. The City of Philadelphia is suing.
@williamglenn or @Sandpit please explain to me how this isn't White Supremacist fascism.
You say that like white supremacist fascism is a bad thing
I do apologise. I missed you off my "naughty list".
I will donate, phone bank, and knock on doors for any Democrat who promises to do everything to the Republicans in power that they’re doing to innocent people. Not talk about the price of milk. Not talk about norms. Just want a promise that the these motherfuckers will rot.
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely eye watering and quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs.
oh no. not second hand car dealers. oh shit.
Tbf, it would be annoying if we couldn't buy or sell 2nd hand cars.
It would be quite funny to see WeBuyAnyCar go bust, though.
They would be taken over by a private equity firm. WeBuyWeBuyAnyCar.
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - but would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
A grim moment
Which book about Weimar?
I have just started Ullrich's new book on this era: Fateful Hours.
Frank McDonough’s “The Weimar Years” - really good. Only a third of the way in but I’ve learned something new & fascinating on almost every page
It’s beautifully balanced (so far). It shows how a horror like Hitler could logically emerge in a civilised nation - without, in any way, trying to whitewash Nazism
Almost too on the nose for this moment in history
I will listen to that. I’ve been listening to a book called ‘Perfection’. Half way through and finding it really boring. Anyone else read/listened to it?
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely eye watering and quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs.
oh no. not second hand car dealers. oh shit.
Tbf, it would be annoying if we couldn't buy or sell 2nd hand cars.
It would be quite funny to see WeBuyAnyCar go bust, though.
Owned by BCA so highly unlikely. The WBAC cheat code is bribe the valuer otherwise you are going to get fucked and will deserve it. Motorway are way worse!
Stephen Miller called the victim, an ICU nurse at the VA filming ICE, a “domestic terrorist who tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.” Greg Bovino said he “wanted to massacre law enforcement.” You saw the videos. How can any Republican not call for their resignations? https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2015157352928833717
So Bovino too.
The man directing agents in the ground in Minnesota is effectively saying it's fine for his agents to assume, on no evidence at all, that protestors are intent on massacring them, and it's fine to shoot them.
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely eye watering and quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs.
oh no. not second hand car dealers. oh shit.
Tbf, it would be annoying if we couldn't buy or sell 2nd hand cars.
It would be quite funny to see WeBuyAnyCar go bust, though.
They are owned by British Car Auctions and they chip sellers after their low ball initial offer so they have absolutely no buyer jeopardy.
He won't like this, respect is only a one way thing.
Google translate Italy and the United States are bound by a solid friendship, founded on shared values and historic collaboration, even more necessary in the face of the many ongoing challenges. But friendship requires respect, a fundamental condition for continuing to ensure the solidarity that underpins the Atlantic Alliance. https://nitter.poast.org/GiorgiaMeloni/status/2015128920962527388#m
Meloni seems to be the only populist right leader who does anti-Trumpism well…?
She was also stronger in support of Ukraine than many.
The first Minnesota murder, they refused to let a medical professional help the woman they shot. The second Minnesota murder, they simply shot the medical professional.
Stephen Miller called the victim, an ICU nurse at the VA filming ICE, a “domestic terrorist who tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.” Greg Bovino said he “wanted to massacre law enforcement.” You saw the videos. How can any Republican not call for their resignations? https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2015157352928833717
So Bovino too.
The man directing agents in the ground in Minnesota is effectively saying it's fine for his agents to assume, on no evidence at all, that protestors are intent on massacring them, and it's fine to shoot them.
That is a very dangerous message.
Miller is quite probably the most dangerous man in America today. The field is crowded but he is off the scale evil.
That’s disgusting. That’s the end of Newsoms Presidential bid.
Thank God.
Trump lowered the bar so much that anything goes now . I don’t think much of Newsom and he would be a disaster. Hopefully the Dems see sense . My long shot would be Andy Beshear the Kentucky Governor.
Like him or hate him Trump is undeniably rude, vulgar, and aggressive. His supporters love that side of him, as directed at those they hate, when it used to be the case that at least some of them would be a little squeamish about his style even if they liked the policies he enacted (British Trumpers are mostly still in the latter category I think).
Various GOP officials have sought to copy Trump's style, and more Democrats are at the point where they too want to punchier, more aggressive, and in their eyes hit back. I get it, especially in such a polarised situation. Not everything can or should be responded to like we're all neutral automatons or emotionally repressed Vulcans*.
The poisoning of the American political discourse is quite severe, and I think even in the UK people denigrate the polite faces and fictions we can put on elections, campaigning, and general political life.
These things are not meaningless, they help maintain a politics where intense disagreement is not so easily turned to hatred, fear, and ultimately willingness to otherise, exclude, even attack the other, to accept losses, to not take every opportunity to stretch legal limits, to maximise exercises of power, to ignore sensible balances and conventions.
*side note, I've always thought Star Trek is very weird with Vulcans, who basically decided that because they could not control their emotions very well, that they judged everyone else at fault for not being 'logical' enough, rather than acceptiong that other species were better able to handle themselves and didn't need to emotionally repress everything.
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely eye watering and quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs.
oh no. not second hand car dealers. oh shit.
Tbf, it would be annoying if we couldn't buy or sell 2nd hand cars.
It would be quite funny to see WeBuyAnyCar go bust, though.
They would be taken over by a private equity firm. WeBuyWeBuyAnyCar.
If people want to feel more positive about humanity in general I recommend doing what I've done for the last 2 hours and rewatch Wall-E for about the 20th time.
Nothing like watching a trash-compactor robot fall in love on a post apocalyptic Earth to make you feel more positive about life and human nature.
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs are eye watering.
It's why WFH is upticking again.
Why spend hundreds of thousands on owning/renting/council/business rates/energy costs of big offices when you can get your staff to WFH.
Well-managed, WFH should improve efficiency.
The issue is the country has an awful lot of duffers who can't manage, in positions of leadership.
But they went to the right schools and universities, and know the right people, so they are entitled to their positions.
Starmer went to Leeds for undergrad and a minor public school ex grammar school. Kemi went to a sixth form college and Sussex Uni, Farage never went to any uni albeit he went to major public school Dulwich. Davey went to a minor public school and Oxford, Polanski went to a minor public school, state sixth form college and Aberystwyth.
Not a Cambridge grad amongst them, only Davey went to Oxford for undergrad (Starmer for 1 year postgrad). Not an Etonian or Harrovian or Wykhamist there either
I wasn’t thinking of our senior politicians. I was thinking of our generally incompetent senior and middle managers, both in the public and private sectors.
Most middle managers are state educated, even amongst FTSE 100 CEOs only 18% attended independent schools, though 53% were educated abroad. 47% of FTSE 100 chairs went to independent school, so higher but still not a majority https://elitistbritain.suttontrust.com/#ftse100-ceos
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - but would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
A grim moment
Which book about Weimar?
I have just started Ullrich's new book on this era: Fateful Hours.
Frank McDonough’s “The Weimar Years” - really good. Only a third of the way in but I’ve learned something new & fascinating on almost every page
It’s beautifully balanced (so far). It shows how a horror like Hitler could logically emerge in a civilised nation - without, in any way, trying to whitewash Nazism
Almost too on the nose for this moment in history
Yes, that is a really good book. Lot more detail than Ullrich's I think who has a more journalistic/novelist style in his books.
This Bovino guy is full SS, isn't he? Not good at all. Darkly fascinating to see if this kind of propaganda can work when we can see the videos of the poor man being executed, and reverse Google search the cover up.
The problem with a suspension of due process, absolute immunity and so on, is the principle of innocent before guilty will also collapse. Most Americans will assume murder until proven otherwise - and frankly they would be right to do so.
So - civil war? That's what some people on PB have excitedly anticipated for some some time. But if ICE will execute you just for having a gun then the opportunity for such a conflict looks slim. And how ironic, given the 2nd amendment and it's advocates. Where are they now?
Stephen Miller called the victim, an ICU nurse at the VA filming ICE, a “domestic terrorist who tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.” Greg Bovino said he “wanted to massacre law enforcement.” You saw the videos. How can any Republican not call for their resignations? https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2015157352928833717
So Bovino too.
The man directing agents in the ground in Minnesota is effectively saying it's fine for his agents to assume, on no evidence at all, that protestors are intent on massacring them, and it's fine to shoot them.
That is a very dangerous message.
They want people to be afraid. If you might die, and you cannot expect law enforcement to do anything, and even if they did the Supreme Court will grant immunity to the person ultimately doing the ordering, then why would you continue to resist?
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs are eye watering.
It's why WFH is upticking again.
Why spend hundreds of thousands on owning/renting/council/business rates/energy costs of big offices when you can get your staff to WFH.
Well-managed, WFH should improve efficiency.
The issue is the country has an awful lot of duffers who can't manage, in positions of leadership.
But they went to the right schools and universities, and know the right people, so they are entitled to their positions.
Starmer went to Leeds for undergrad and a minor public school ex grammar school. Kemi went to a sixth form college and Sussex Uni, Farage never went to any uni albeit he went to major public school Dulwich. Davey went to a minor public school and Oxford, Polanski went to a minor public school, state sixth form college and Aberystwyth.
Not a Cambridge grad amongst them, only Davey went to Oxford for undergrad (Starmer for 1 year postgrad). Not an Etonian or Harrovian or Wykhamist there either
I wasn’t thinking of our senior politicians. I was thinking of our generally incompetent senior and middle managers, both in the public and private sectors.
Most middle managers are state educated, even amongst FTSE 100 CEOs only 18% attended independent schools, though 53% were educated abroad. 47% of FTSE 100 chairs went to independent school, so higher but still not a majority https://elitistbritain.suttontrust.com/#ftse100-ceos
I was talking to a second hand car dealer the other day. They were saying all this focus on the likes of pubs, their costs are absolutely through the roof due to the cummulative effect of so many tax changes. Absolutely quite a few well known and respected dealers have gone busto recently as the monthly running costs are eye watering.
It's why WFH is upticking again.
Why spend hundreds of thousands on owning/renting/council/business rates/energy costs of big offices when you can get your staff to WFH.
Well-managed, WFH should improve efficiency.
The issue is the country has an awful lot of duffers who can't manage, in positions of leadership.
But they went to the right schools and universities, and know the right people, so they are entitled to their positions.
Starmer went to Leeds for undergrad and a minor public school ex grammar school. Kemi went to a sixth form college and Sussex Uni, Farage never went to any uni albeit he went to major public school Dulwich. Davey went to a minor public school and Oxford, Polanski went to a minor public school, state sixth form college and Aberystwyth.
Not a Cambridge grad amongst them, only Davey went to Oxford for undergrad (Starmer for 1 year postgrad). Not an Etonian or Harrovian or Wykhamist there either
I wasn’t thinking of our senior politicians. I was thinking of our generally incompetent senior and middle managers, both in the public and private sectors.
Most middle managers are state educated, even amongst FTSE 100 CEOs only 18% attended independent schools, though 53% were educated abroad. 47% of FTSE 100 chairs went to independent school, so higher but still not a majority https://elitistbritain.suttontrust.com/#ftse100-ceos
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - but would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
A grim moment
Which book about Weimar?
I have just started Ullrich's new book on this era: Fateful Hours.
Frank McDonough’s “The Weimar Years” - really good. Only a third of the way in but I’ve learned something new & fascinating on almost every page
It’s beautifully balanced (so far). It shows how a horror like Hitler could logically emerge in a civilised nation - without, in any way, trying to whitewash Nazism
Almost too on the nose for this moment in history
McDonough tells a good story, but his books are somewhat of a noddy guide compared to more serious academics of the genre like Evans
The Fukkers are a party owned and operated by wealthy charlatans to attract moronic nativists with neck tats that say "MAM" and a Chinaphone with a broken screen.
Sen. Hoeven: "We can't just go by what we saw on videos on social media. We've got to get the facts. But in a situation where an individual appears to have approached law enforcement, intervened while they're trying to do their job, and he has a loaded handgun, think about that." https://x.com/atrupar/status/2015164125370884592
The Fukkers are a party owned and operated by wealthy charlatans to attract moronic nativists with neck tats that say "MAM" and a Chinaphone with a broken screen.
If Reform were only attracting those voters not swing voters they would be polling 10% not 25-30% now
Sen. Hoeven: "We can't just go by what we saw on videos on social media. We've got to get the facts. But in a situation where an individual appears to have approached law enforcement, intervened while they're trying to do their job, and he has a loaded handgun, think about that." https://x.com/atrupar/status/2015164125370884592
Sadly I don't think more than 1-2% of people will pick up on the dissonance of implying someone being present with a gun is reason enough for them to be shot, whilst also intent on protecting the right of people to go around with guns as much as possible.
I expect anyone pointing it out will face an angry reaction instead.
Responding to anything with hyper-aggressive denial has worked up until now, and there's no institution willing or able to stop them, so why change?
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - but would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
A grim moment
Which book about Weimar?
I have just started Ullrich's new book on this era: Fateful Hours.
Frank McDonough’s “The Weimar Years” - really good. Only a third of the way in but I’ve learned something new & fascinating on almost every page
It’s beautifully balanced (so far). It shows how a horror like Hitler could logically emerge in a civilised nation - without, in any way, trying to whitewash Nazism
Almost too on the nose for this moment in history
McDonough tells a good story, but his books are somewhat of a noddy guide compared to more serious academics of the genre like Evans
Evans is a dull, stodgy, humourless and outdated old spinster, so I can see how he’d appeal to you
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - but would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
A grim moment
Which book about Weimar?
I have just started Ullrich's new book on this era: Fateful Hours.
Frank McDonough’s “The Weimar Years” - really good. Only a third of the way in but I’ve learned something new & fascinating on almost every page
It’s beautifully balanced (so far). It shows how a horror like Hitler could logically emerge in a civilised nation - without, in any way, trying to whitewash Nazism
Almost too on the nose for this moment in history
McDonough tells a good story, but his books are somewhat of a noddy guide compared to more serious academics of the genre like Evans
I also was given for xmas, Vertigo: The Rise and Fall of Weimar Germany by Jähner. No idea what that's like as still on the unread pile.
Evans is the doyen of course. But the two books I mention are by Germans who may bring something else to the histories.
This Bovino guy is full SS, isn't he? Not good at all. Darkly fascinating to see if this kind of propaganda can work when we can see the videos of the poor man being executed, and reverse Google search the cover up.
The problem with a suspension of due process, absolute immunity and so on, is the principle of innocent before guilty will also collapse. Most Americans will assume murder until proven otherwise - and frankly they would be right to do so.
So - civil war? That's what some people on PB have excitedly anticipated for some some time. But if ICE will execute you just for having a gun then the opportunity for such a conflict looks slim. And how ironic, given the 2nd amendment and it's advocates. Where are they now?
It's all so confusing. Listening to Donald Trump bombasting about Iran you'd be forgiven for thinking he found the notion of state violence against legitimate protesters to be utterly unacceptable.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe it is Bessent, not Bessant and Bongino, not Bonvino. (There are so many unfamiliar names in the UK and the EU that perhaps these are just people I don't know.)
We have to assume Reform will ultimately be like the Republicans until they give us reason to doubt that they're more-or-less fully on board with the abhorrent MAGA agenda.
As I've said before, that means being willing to vote tactically for any of the other mainstream parties (including the Welsh and Scottish nationalist ones, where relevant) if Reform are the main challengers.
The maintenance of civil democracy is more important than policy positions.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe it is Bessent, not Bessant and Bongino, not Bonvino. (There are so many unfamiliar names in the UK and the EU that perhaps these are just people I don't know.)
Bovino and Bongino are two different individuals. The latter is a conservative podcaster (among other things), the former is the full Nazi, complete with trench coat.
Apparently, Labour's NEC has asked the BBC to shortlist Andy Burnham for the upcoming edition of Celebrity Traitors. They've concluded that's the best way of finding out if he's a Faithful or a Traitor.
We have to assume Reform will ultimately be like the Republicans until they give us reason to doubt that they're more-or-less fully on board with the abhorrent MAGA agenda.
As I've said before, that means being willing to vote tactically for any of the other mainstream parties (including the Welsh and Scottish nationalist ones, where relevant) if Reform are the main challengers.
The maintenance of civil democracy is more important than policy positions.
You mean “maintaining democracy” as in: cancelling elections, abandoning jury trials, locking up people for tweets, and introducing blasphemy laws?
We must all vote against Reform so Labour can keep on doing all that? And more? Got it
Apparently, Labour's NEC has asked the BBC to shortlist Andy Burnham for the upcoming edition of Celebrity Traitors. They've concluded that's the best way of finding out if he's a Faithful or a Traitor.
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
A grim moment
Don't be daft. The Democrats are not Stalin.
Nor is Trump Hitler. But you guys constantly use this language - “Republicans are Nazis, Trump = Hitler” etc
The Fukkers are a party owned and operated by wealthy charlatans to attract moronic nativists with neck tats that say "MAM" and a Chinaphone with a broken screen.
Reform vote is more elderly when hardly anyone did degrees . It’s not a question of morons voting reform
Just want to say thanks to the Labour government, whose rising rates and taxes and general fucking ineptitude have just abruptly closed the St Andrews cafe where my older daughter had a waitressing job she really liked
I can assure you however that the failure of hospitality businesses in St Andrews has very little to do with government policy. Having lived there for 20 years, having run restaurants and hotels there, having set up restaurants from scratch, it’s ineptitude, laziness, naïveté and poor planning on the part of the business owners that are responsible. I can think of one restaurant in Crails Lane that went through 5 different revamps in a 2 year period in the late 90s and at least three bars that changed hands or shut and reopened on a regular basis (every 18 months) in the 00s. The restaurants that survived - The Doll’s House, Brambles, the Jahangir, the Vine Leaf, the Ark - did so through hard work and realistic expectations.
Just because it’s St Andrews - where royals and golfers walk the same streets as Town and Gown - doesn’t mean it’s a licence to print money. Far from it. It’s about the bread and butter customers who will be there on a wet Monday evening in November in the middle of a recession looking for a table for 2. If you don’t attract them, then all the others don’t mater. You wont be there 6 or 12 months later.
Despite leaving for a career in academia, I still consult with businesses there. I know of two bistros opening in the next six months and they’re owned by families that have had independent restaurants for years and that are still running today. I have no doubt that your daughter will find something soon. I can PM you with details closer to the time.
I worked in a restaurant in St Andrews for four years. It's a very seasonal business and there are a lot of eateries in the town. When I lived there hospitality businesses were opening and closing constantly.
@Sandpit you are one of the posters on here I most enjoy reading - we view the political world through very different lenses but you are articulate and thoughtful and often challenge my thinking (and I am pigheaded enough that not many people manage to do this). I was thoroughly disappointed when you were persuaded to leave this forum for a period of time because of some quite unpleasant posts directed at you.
So I hope I might be permitted to challenge your thinking on this latest Minnesota shooting without this being perceived as another one of those posts - it isn't meant that way.
You clearly sincerely believe that the anti-immigration stance Trump is taking in the USA is a good thing, and that Walz is doing the wrong thing in resisting it. I don't know enough to escape my own prejudices to have an informed and balanced opinion on this.
But look at that latest video again with fresh eyes, knowing what we now know about the victim. A band of masked, non-uniformed men have just very incompetently attempted to apprehend, and then kill, a man who appears to be entirely innocent.
This isn't okay, it is criminal, and trying to divert from that to Walz's immigration policy is the worst form of political whataboutery.
I think you’re both right
ICE just executed a man in Minnesota. Not quite in cold blood, but certainly not - AFAICS - with any real justification. This is because a hard nasty USG wants to impose its will, with violence if necessary, against a Left which it sees as imperilling America’s future
But the American Left IS a threat to America. It’s the Left that does the assassinations - Kirk. It’s the Left that really did flood America with millions of migrants to ramp up Democrat votes and debauch American democracy (and defraud America via fraud - Walz really is a snake)
I’m reading a book about Weimar Germany right now. The parallels are intense. Both sides get more and more polarised and are equally unsympathetic. The Nazis won, and it was a catastrophe - would it have been better for Germany or the world if the commies had won and allied with Stalin?
A grim moment
Don't be daft. The Democrats are not Stalin.
Nor is Trump Hitler. But you guys constantly use this language - “Republicans are Nazis, Trump = Hitler” etc
In the end it might be self-fulfilling
Jeremy Corbyn too, when he was Labour leader.
"Self-fulfilling"
"I will now seek to blame the left for the people I hung my hat on being utter cun*s"
The only time in recent history when turnout amongst poorer and lower educated voters was closer to the other demographics was in the EU referendum.
I remember my friend in Cornwall during the vote said Leave was going to win as she said she saw lots of chavvy looking people with tats and ill fitting leggings at the polling station .
The Fukkers are a party owned and operated by wealthy charlatans to attract moronic nativists with neck tats that say "MAM" and a Chinaphone with a broken screen.
Reform vote is more elderly when hardly anyone did degrees . It’s not a question of morons voting reform
Reform's '24 vote was actually remarkably consistent across age groups. It's Conservatives that have the strong elderly bias.
The only time in recent history when turnout amongst poorer and lower educated voters was closer to the other demographics was in the EU referendum.
I remember my friend in Cornwall during the vote said Leave was going to win as she said she saw lots of chavvy looking people with tats and ill fitting leggings at the polling station .
That describes a lot of middle class yummy mummies these days who have got on the fat jabs.
We have to assume Reform will ultimately be like the Republicans until they give us reason to doubt that they're more-or-less fully on board with the abhorrent MAGA agenda.
As I've said before, that means being willing to vote tactically for any of the other mainstream parties (including the Welsh and Scottish nationalist ones, where relevant) if Reform are the main challengers.
The maintenance of civil democracy is more important than policy positions.
You mean “maintaining democracy” as in: cancelling elections, abandoning jury trials, locking up people for tweets, and introducing blasphemy laws?
We must all vote against Reform so Labour can keep on doing all that? And more? Got it
No one, especially you, gives two shits about delaying local elections due to upcoming reforms.
The rest is irrelevant whataboutery. For example, even if you could point me to legislation on blasphemy laws (which you can't), there's nothing fundamentally anti-democratic about it (e.g. we used to have one decades ago, as much as I disagree with it).
I know you are fascist-curious, so the sight of lots of strong men in masks beating people up probably reminds you of some sexual experimenting you did in yours 20s, but for the rest of us it's quite a distance away from pushing back Kent county council local elections until 2027.
Just want to say thanks to the Labour government, whose rising rates and taxes and general fucking ineptitude have just abruptly closed the St Andrews cafe where my older daughter had a waitressing job she really liked
I can assure you however that the failure of hospitality businesses in St Andrews has very little to do with government policy. Having lived there for 20 years, having run restaurants and hotels there, having set up restaurants from scratch, it’s ineptitude, laziness, naïveté and poor planning on the part of the business owners that are responsible. I can think of one restaurant in Crails Lane that went through 5 different revamps in a 2 year period in the late 90s and at least three bars that changed hands or shut and reopened on a regular basis (every 18 months) in the 00s. The restaurants that survived - The Doll’s House, Brambles, the Jahangir, the Vine Leaf, the Ark - did so through hard work and realistic expectations.
Just because it’s St Andrews - where royals and golfers walk the same streets as Town and Gown - doesn’t mean it’s a licence to print money. Far from it. It’s about the bread and butter customers who will be there on a wet Monday evening in November in the middle of a recession looking for a table for 2. If you don’t attract them, then all the others don’t mater. You wont be there 6 or 12 months later.
Despite leaving for a career in academia, I still consult with businesses there. I know of two bistros opening in the next six months and they’re owned by families that have had independent restaurants for years and that are still running today. I have no doubt that your daughter will find something soon. I can PM you with details closer to the time.
I worked in a restaurant in St Andrews for four years. It's a very seasonal business and there are a lot of eateries in the town. When I lived there hospitality businesses were opening and closing constantly.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe it is Bessent, not Bessant and Bongino, not Bonvino. (There are so many unfamiliar names in the UK and the EU that perhaps these are just people I don't know.)
I read this morning that Trump was concerned that Minneapolis wasn’t playing well for him. It was supposed to create confrontation and increase the salience of immigration, thereby favouring Trump. Instead it just looks (and seems to be) like a gang of masked thugs running riot on the streets of a major U.S. metro.
The only time in recent history when turnout amongst poorer and lower educated voters was closer to the other demographics was in the EU referendum.
I remember my friend in Cornwall during the vote said Leave was going to win as she said she saw lots of chavvy looking people with tats and ill fitting leggings at the polling station .
That describes a lot of middle class yummy mummies these days who have got on the fat jabs.
Thankfully my local Waitrose escorts the ill fitting leggings brigade out of the door .
I read this morning that Trump was concerned that Minneapolis wasn’t playing well for him. It was supposed to create confrontation and increase the salience of immigration, thereby favouring Trump. Instead it just looks (and seems to be) like a gang of masked thugs running riot on the streets of a major U.S. metro.
We have to assume Reform will ultimately be like the Republicans until they give us reason to doubt that they're more-or-less fully on board with the abhorrent MAGA agenda.
As I've said before, that means being willing to vote tactically for any of the other mainstream parties (including the Welsh and Scottish nationalist ones, where relevant) if Reform are the main challengers.
The maintenance of civil democracy is more important than policy positions.
You mean “maintaining democracy” as in: cancelling elections, abandoning jury trials, locking up people for tweets, and introducing blasphemy laws?
We must all vote against Reform so Labour can keep on doing all that? And more? Got it
No one, especially you, gives two shits about delaying local elections due to upcoming reforms.
The rest is irrelevant whataboutery. For example, even if you could point me to legislation on blasphemy laws (which you can't), there's nothing fundamentally anti-democratic about it (e.g. we used to have one decades ago, as much as I disagree with it).
I know you are fascist-curious, so the sight of lots of strong men in masks beating people up probably reminds you of some sexual experimenting you did in yours 20s, but for the rest of us it's quite a distance away from pushing back Kent county council local elections until 2027.
It’s cancelling elections for millions of people. Again
It’s the very same shit you bloviating lefty pin-heads rant on about re Trump. Endlessly
The only time in recent history when turnout amongst poorer and lower educated voters was closer to the other demographics was in the EU referendum.
I remember my friend in Cornwall during the vote said Leave was going to win as she said she saw lots of chavvy looking people with tats and ill fitting leggings at the polling station .
After all this is over, we need to pass a law that makes social media posts from official agency accounts like this subject to perjury. It is too destructive to the country to let them keep lying and lying and lying without any possible legal remedy. https://x.com/moultano/status/2015128200226160652
The other point about this is that the DHS, which has published a pack of lies about the killing, will be running the investigation into it.
On topic, if I'd spent the last 6 months gleefully briefing the press about how I'd found an MP who would stand down for me, and I was hoping to appeal to the sense of fair play of the NEC to let me run, I wouldn't begin my letter, "of course, nobody wanted or expected a by-election at this time".
We have to assume Reform will ultimately be like the Republicans until they give us reason to doubt that they're more-or-less fully on board with the abhorrent MAGA agenda.
As I've said before, that means being willing to vote tactically for any of the other mainstream parties (including the Welsh and Scottish nationalist ones, where relevant) if Reform are the main challengers.
The maintenance of civil democracy is more important than policy positions.
You mean “maintaining democracy” as in: cancelling elections, abandoning jury trials, locking up people for tweets, and introducing blasphemy laws?
We must all vote against Reform so Labour can keep on doing all that? And more? Got it
No one, especially you, gives two shits about delaying local elections due to upcoming reforms.
The rest is irrelevant whataboutery. For example, even if you could point me to legislation on blasphemy laws (which you can't), there's nothing fundamentally anti-democratic about it (e.g. we used to have one decades ago, as much as I disagree with it).
I know you are fascist-curious, so the sight of lots of strong men in masks beating people up probably reminds you of some sexual experimenting you did in yours 20s, but for the rest of us it's quite a distance away from pushing back Kent county council local elections until 2027.
It’s cancelling elections for millions of people. Again
It’s the very same shit you bloviating lefty pin-heads rant on about re Trump. Endlessly
The hypocrisy is outstanding
I challenge you to find a single comment in the past week on PB where lefty pin-heads have complained about the delay of municipal elections in the US.
It's not hypocrisy, because no one has commented on a similar topic. You are just clutching are straws.
After all this is over, we need to pass a law that makes social media posts from official agency accounts like this subject to perjury. It is too destructive to the country to let them keep lying and lying and lying without any possible legal remedy. https://x.com/moultano/status/2015128200226160652
The other point about this is that the DHS, which has published a pack of lies about the killing, will be running the investigation into it.
Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans says his team arrived on the scene of the shooting to conduct an independent investigation and "were blocked by federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security." https://x.com/kylegriffin1/status/2015177877512212720
National Police Service: New 'British FBI' to fight serious crime and help local police tackle everyday offences
National Police Service (NPS), it will combine the National Crime Agency, Counter Terrorism Police, Regional Organised Crime Units, police helicopters and National Road Policing
We have to assume Reform will ultimately be like the Republicans until they give us reason to doubt that they're more-or-less fully on board with the abhorrent MAGA agenda.
As I've said before, that means being willing to vote tactically for any of the other mainstream parties (including the Welsh and Scottish nationalist ones, where relevant) if Reform are the main challengers.
The maintenance of civil democracy is more important than policy positions.
You mean “maintaining democracy” as in: cancelling elections, abandoning jury trials, locking up people for tweets, and introducing blasphemy laws?
We must all vote against Reform so Labour can keep on doing all that? And more? Got it
No one, especially you, gives two shits about delaying local elections due to upcoming reforms.
The rest is irrelevant whataboutery. For example, even if you could point me to legislation on blasphemy laws (which you can't), there's nothing fundamentally anti-democratic about it (e.g. we used to have one decades ago, as much as I disagree with it).
I know you are fascist-curious, so the sight of lots of strong men in masks beating people up probably reminds you of some sexual experimenting you did in yours 20s, but for the rest of us it's quite a distance away from pushing back Kent county council local elections until 2027.
It’s cancelling elections for millions of people. Again
It’s the very same shit you bloviating lefty pin-heads rant on about re Trump. Endlessly
The hypocrisy is outstanding
I challenge you to find a single comment in the past week on PB where lefty pin-heads have complained about the delay of municipal elections in the US.
It's not hypocrisy, because no one has commented on a similar topic. You are just clutching are straws.
You’re just too fecking dumb to even debate with. It’s a special kind of wilful lefty stupidity - oft identified on social media. Refusing to understand and admit obvious things thus rendering discourse pointless
I read this morning that Trump was concerned that Minneapolis wasn’t playing well for him. It was supposed to create confrontation and increase the salience of immigration, thereby favouring Trump. Instead it just looks (and seems to be) like a gang of masked thugs running riot on the streets of a major U.S. metro.
ICE is the loadbearing component of the Miller plan. That's why they are freaking out that it's not going as planned.
If ICE doesn't work, the whole project is in jeopardy
I don't see how it fails in the short term. Miller can take down every blue state one state at a time. Essentially what he wants is to invoke the Insurrection Act and martial law so he can send the military in against Americans. If Civil War ensues Stephen Miller (Trump is merely his proxy) owns the Military (his puppet is Commander-in-Chief) he owns the Supreme Court, Congress and Republicans all own rather dramatic weaponry.
I don't understand why they haven't been more ruthless to date. What is holding Miller back from going full Fuhrer?
After homeland security is under control then they can think about their international ambitions. Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Greenland, Iceland and Canada in that order should do the trick.
Just want to say thanks to the Labour government, whose rising rates and taxes and general fucking ineptitude have just abruptly closed the St Andrews cafe where my older daughter had a waitressing job she really liked
I can assure you however that the failure of hospitality businesses in St Andrews has very little to do with government policy. Having lived there for 20 years, having run restaurants and hotels there, having set up restaurants from scratch, it’s ineptitude, laziness, naïveté and poor planning on the part of the business owners that are responsible. I can think of one restaurant in Crails Lane that went through 5 different revamps in a 2 year period in the late 90s and at least three bars that changed hands or shut and reopened on a regular basis (every 18 months) in the 00s. The restaurants that survived - The Doll’s House, Brambles, the Jahangir, the Vine Leaf, the Ark - did so through hard work and realistic expectations.
Just because it’s St Andrews - where royals and golfers walk the same streets as Town and Gown - doesn’t mean it’s a licence to print money. Far from it. It’s about the bread and butter customers who will be there on a wet Monday evening in November in the middle of a recession looking for a table for 2. If you don’t attract them, then all the others don’t mater. You wont be there 6 or 12 months later.
Despite leaving for a career in academia, I still consult with businesses there. I know of two bistros opening in the next six months and they’re owned by families that have had independent restaurants for years and that are still running today. I have no doubt that your daughter will find something soon. I can PM you with details closer to the time.
Somewhat related - I quite enjoy the Scotsman's food podcast :
We have to assume Reform will ultimately be like the Republicans until they give us reason to doubt that they're more-or-less fully on board with the abhorrent MAGA agenda.
As I've said before, that means being willing to vote tactically for any of the other mainstream parties (including the Welsh and Scottish nationalist ones, where relevant) if Reform are the main challengers.
The maintenance of civil democracy is more important than policy positions.
You mean “maintaining democracy” as in: cancelling elections, abandoning jury trials, locking up people for tweets, and introducing blasphemy laws?
We must all vote against Reform so Labour can keep on doing all that? And more? Got it
No one, especially you, gives two shits about delaying local elections due to upcoming reforms.
The rest is irrelevant whataboutery. For example, even if you could point me to legislation on blasphemy laws (which you can't), there's nothing fundamentally anti-democratic about it (e.g. we used to have one decades ago, as much as I disagree with it).
I know you are fascist-curious, so the sight of lots of strong men in masks beating people up probably reminds you of some sexual experimenting you did in yours 20s, but for the rest of us it's quite a distance away from pushing back Kent county council local elections until 2027.
It’s cancelling elections for millions of people. Again
It’s the very same shit you bloviating lefty pin-heads rant on about re Trump. Endlessly
The hypocrisy is outstanding
I challenge you to find a single comment in the past week on PB where lefty pin-heads have complained about the delay of municipal elections in the US.
It's not hypocrisy, because no one has commented on a similar topic. You are just clutching are straws.
You’re just too fecking dumb to even debate with. It’s a special kind of wilful lefty stupidity - oft identified on social media. Refusing to understand and admit obvious things thus rendering discourse pointless
Classic Leon discourse. Give up on debating points and go for intelligence-based ad hominem.
We came to a similar place around a year ago and I shared evidence over private message that counters the idea that I'm very stupid, if that helps.
But I'm sure it's much easier to assume people who disagree with your X-bubble are plain stupid.
Whereas in reality, the quality of your prose doesn't improve the underlying arguments. Lipstick on a pig comes to mind.
Comments
It would be quite funny to see WeBuyAnyCar go bust, though.
But as I've noted, his administration is increasingly adopting the tactics of fascism.
And I'll readily admit to comparing Miller with Goebbels.
If you haven't noticed the efforts of the MAGA Republicans to concentrate all political power in the hands of the President, then you haven't been paying attention to US politics.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFWsXjfWhznuOlKpEkz1GRAC2kMYaIWRd&si=paFVGwMY6Q_FcMmS
It’s beautifully balanced (so far). It shows how a horror like Hitler could logically emerge in a civilised nation - without, in any way, trying to whitewash Nazism
Almost too on the nose for this moment in history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk-R9RVziVA
It's not even capital.
It's who knows about tools like Clawdbot and who doesn't.
https://x.com/heyshrutimishra/status/2015134771719151985?s=20
I am out of magic bean tokens until tomorrow :-(
I will donate, phone bank, and knock on doors for any Democrat who promises to do everything to the Republicans in power that they’re doing to innocent people. Not talk about the price of milk. Not talk about norms. Just want a promise that the these motherfuckers will rot.
Apparently I am the sort of person who would snort cocaine on a picture of David Cameron.
https://x.com/Lou_obrien19/status/2015172472610463818/photo/1
https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2015157352928833717
So Bovino too.
The man directing agents in the ground in Minnesota is effectively saying it's fine for his agents to assume, on no evidence at all, that protestors are intent on massacring them, and it's fine to shoot them.
That is a very dangerous message.
The first Minnesota murder, they refused to let a medical professional help the woman they shot. The second Minnesota murder, they simply shot the medical professional.
Various GOP officials have sought to copy Trump's style, and more Democrats are at the point where they too want to punchier, more aggressive, and in their eyes hit back. I get it, especially in such a polarised situation. Not everything can or should be responded to like we're all neutral automatons or emotionally repressed Vulcans*.
The poisoning of the American political discourse is quite severe, and I think even in the UK people denigrate the polite faces and fictions we can put on elections, campaigning, and general political life.
These things are not meaningless, they help maintain a politics where intense disagreement is not so easily turned to hatred, fear, and ultimately willingness to otherise, exclude, even attack the other, to accept losses, to not take every opportunity to stretch legal limits, to maximise exercises of power, to ignore sensible balances and conventions.
*side note, I've always thought Star Trek is very weird with Vulcans, who basically decided that because they could not control their emotions very well, that they judged everyone else at fault for not being 'logical' enough, rather than acceptiong that other species were better able to handle themselves and didn't need to emotionally repress everything.
Nothing like watching a trash-compactor robot fall in love on a post apocalyptic Earth to make you feel more positive about life and human nature.
https://elitistbritain.suttontrust.com/#ftse100-ceos
45% of public body CEOs went to a comp, higher than the 28% who went to an independent school and the 17% to a grammar.
https://elitistbritain.suttontrust.com/#public-body-ceos
47% of permanent secretaries went to independent schools but still less than 50%
https://elitistbritain.suttontrust.com/#permanent-secretaries
ICE just murdered the good guy with a gun.
The problem with a suspension of due process, absolute immunity and so on, is the principle of innocent before guilty will also collapse. Most Americans will assume murder until proven otherwise - and frankly they would be right to do so.
So - civil war? That's what some people on PB have excitedly anticipated for some some time. But if ICE will execute you just for having a gun then the opportunity for such a conflict looks slim. And how ironic, given the 2nd amendment and it's advocates. Where are they now?
Proof if it was ever need that private and grammar schools are superfluous to requirements.
The Fukkers are a party owned and operated by wealthy charlatans to attract moronic nativists with neck tats that say "MAM" and a Chinaphone with a broken screen.
https://x.com/atrupar/status/2015164125370884592
Literally 10 days ago, @SenJohnHoeven introduced a bill to make concealed carry easier across the nation to help "law-abiding citizens to more freely exercise their Second Amendment rights."
https://x.com/chrisgeidner/status/2015173110341726624
ICE Barbie blaming the Governor for her Nazi stormtroopers executing people in the streets
Season 2 of Andor was not supposed to be a handbook for these asshats
I expect anyone pointing it out will face an angry reaction instead.
Responding to anything with hyper-aggressive denial has worked up until now, and there's no institution willing or able to stop them, so why change?
You can’t “we need our guns” your way to perpetuating school shootings while “he had a gun” your way to justifying public executions.
Evans is the doyen of course. But the two books I mention are by Germans who may bring something else to the histories.
"The insurrectionist was put down.
Well done."
https://x.com/jaubreyYT/status/2015154769698980099
But both sides, eh ?
Bill Kristol
@BillKristol
·
4m
The whole Trump administration rallying to defend…murder.
(And please spare me the lectures about not being “alarmist” about the situation we face.)
https://x.com/BillKristol/status/2015192820332593357
High/Lab will come out against Farage. Will it be enough, and in the right places?
https://x.com/TriciaOhio/status/2015162551055573054
In Minneapolis, these rioters attacked our law enforcement officer and one of them bit off our HSI officer’s finger.
He will lose his finger.
As I've said before, that means being willing to vote tactically for any of the other mainstream parties (including the Welsh and Scottish nationalist ones, where relevant) if Reform are the main challengers.
The maintenance of civil democracy is more important than policy positions.
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DTyg33kCVx6/
We must all vote against Reform so Labour can keep on doing all that? And more? Got it
They gave the finger to Trump.
"I will now seek to blame the left for the people I hung my hat on being utter cun*s"
I remember my friend in Cornwall during the vote said Leave was going to win as she said she saw lots of chavvy looking people with tats and ill fitting leggings at the polling station .
The rest is irrelevant whataboutery. For example, even if you could point me to legislation on blasphemy laws (which you can't), there's nothing fundamentally anti-democratic about it (e.g. we used to have one decades ago, as much as I disagree with it).
I know you are fascist-curious, so the sight of lots of strong men in masks beating people up probably reminds you of some sexual experimenting you did in yours 20s, but for the rest of us it's quite a distance away from pushing back Kent county council local elections until 2027.
If ICE doesn't work, the whole project is in jeopardy
It’s the very same shit you bloviating lefty pin-heads rant on about re Trump. Endlessly
The hypocrisy is outstanding
“A Brownite, a Marxist, a Corbynite and a Blairite walk into a bar. ‘Hello Andy,’ shouts the barman.”
https://x.com/moultano/status/2015128200226160652
The other point about this is that the DHS, which has published a pack of lies about the killing, will be running the investigation into it.
It's not hypocrisy, because no one has commented on a similar topic. You are just clutching are straws.
https://x.com/kylegriffin1/status/2015177877512212720
National Police Service (NPS), it will combine the National Crime Agency, Counter Terrorism Police, Regional Organised Crime Units, police helicopters and National Road Policing
https://news.sky.com/story/national-police-service-new-british-fbi-to-fight-serious-crime-and-help-local-police-tackle-everyday-offences-13498076
I don't understand why they haven't been more ruthless to date. What is holding Miller back from going full Fuhrer?
After homeland security is under control then they can think about their international ambitions. Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Greenland, Iceland and Canada in that order should do the trick.
Miller expected ICE in Minnesota to be greeted as heroes.
Now it's a gigantic clusterfuck that threatens the whole program.
Another shutdown is likely
ClawdBot is the most powerful AI tool I’ve ever used in my life. Here’s how to set it up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkqe-uRhQJE
https://foodanddrink.scotsman.com/scran-podcast/
Don’t dream of demons
We came to a similar place around a year ago and I shared evidence over private message that counters the idea that I'm very stupid, if that helps.
But I'm sure it's much easier to assume people who disagree with your X-bubble are plain stupid.
Whereas in reality, the quality of your prose doesn't improve the underlying arguments. Lipstick on a pig comes to mind.