To make lefties feel nice and warm - Fox News launched 19 years ago today. It has been the number 1 cable news network for 13 of those years, and in the third quarter 2015 it was the most popular cable network of all cable networks regardless of type.
Sol Campbell meanwhile has moved on from mayoral ambitions to try and become a Tory Peer saying "I want to be a Lord. I'm not sure what of, or the title , but the next goal is to be a peer" http://www.westhamonline.net/forum_flat.php?8124246||mc=o||
That really shouldn't be one's goal in life. If he wants to be a politician he should earn some political respect first by standing for elected office somewhere.
Fair point, mind you how many peers now have stood for elected office? Probably a minority
How many have touted for a peerage without any semblance of a contribution to make, an exploitable talent to use or hint of intelligence? The man's a prick and as such is qualified only for a job in JC's shadow cabinet.
I know this is all based on some few measurable criteria, but Baldwin third, and both he and Bonar Law above Churchill, the greatest briton of all time?
I know according to the criteria used that's the case, but I don't think it reflects reality.
To be fair the article does allude to that a bit.
Indeed, it is entirely based on election wins and seats gained and rise in voteshare, on actual governance and leadership Churchill would clearly be top
Churchill was great during the years 40-43, but not so impressive during the rest of his time as PM, and of course in 1940 he was appointed rather than elected.
I think Cameron will rank with Baldwin and MacMillan as a great one nation PM. A lot of his colleagues are far more dodgy.
Yes, but had we not had Churchill we may well have been under Nazi rule by the fifties, rendering everything else redundant. (Churchill did win in 1951 too)
Of course. Though in 51 he barely won, and lost the popular vote as I recall.
True, but the National Liberals were his allies and their total plus the Liberal total and Tory total surpassed Labour's
And there were a few Unionists elected unopposed in NI. If there had been contests, there would have big Unionist majorities in those seats.
How would the media treat an ex-CP member aspiring to power nowadays?
My personal experience for a long time has been that people treat youthful CP involvement as a curious past eccentricity, like saying you used to be a Zoroastrian or a Monopoly addict. It's at least 20 years since I met anyone who recoiled in horror.
There is a serious note here. The CP were the only sizable organisation opposed to the Nazis. The rest were appeasing in one form or another.
The documentary didn't mention him joining the Republicans in Spain against Franco. He was not an idealist only. He actually practised what he preached. He was a Socialist indeed but no pacifist !
I am not sure why many expected him to join the SDP. He had Labour blood running through his veins.
I intend to re-read the "The Time of My Life" - quite easily the best autobiography I have read.
Healey was a Communist throughout the Soviet-Nazi Pact. What do you make of that?
Not quite. He did resign from the CP on the fall of France. He mentions in "The Time of My Life" that he did regret his late resignation which he put it down to "inertia and indifference than from conviction"
I don't think anybody at that time thought that the pact made Germany and the USSR friends. It was seen as buying time for the Soviets. And it did work. Since December 1941, the Germans were on the back foot, long before Johnny Come Lately arrived with the chewing gums !
You need to read some of journals of that period. Comitern made it very clear that Germany was now an ally of Communism to the their members. It wasn't presented as a marriage of convenience.
My grandfather was attacked by hard left organisers of wild cat strikes in the Glasgow dockyards during the Pact period - physically. They thought he was a ring leader among those who insisted that only strike they would support was an official union strike, during the war. They wanted to disrupt the capitalist war against "their" ally.
Is that why hundreds of thousands of working class people thronged our various stadia in 1946 to watch a friendly Soviet football team ? It was their way of thanking the Russians. I also knew a few people who lived through that period. Their view of Russia is different. The Russians broke the Nazi back !
The Russians certainly made the greatest contribution and paid the greatest price for defeat of the Nazis. But if ever a struggle was existential it was theirs. The Russian people understood that and it must have been very motivational. All us Brits knew about the war on the Eastern front was what the censor allowed to be told. Churchill knew but Joe Public didn't know what an evil man Stalin was. IMHO the worst of the 20th century dictators.
It's early days and there's a long way to go. He might recover. Doesn't seem likely.
Question is, if not Jeb and if not Donald, is one of the dead men going to re-emerge from currently single figure ratings?
I like Carly - her risk is her corporate career details and can she explain the layoffs etc. She won both debates. She takes away Clinton's main item - the phoney 'war on women'.
Like everyone else I thought Trump was bound to implode or crash and burn, but it hasn't happened. His weakness is policy and as a debater. When policy time comes that's when he'll maybe start to stumble. Also his honesty numbers are bad.
Carson is the wild card here - a female black professor at Penn called him a coon on TV recently. So he seems to be stirring things up. His comments - politically incorrect but accurate - on the collapse of the black nuclear family and black on black crime have got much attention.
Poring through current polls doesn't help - this is a serendipitous and pseudo-random process and utterly impossible to predict at present - we're all just guessing.
The S.E.C. Primary will cause some fall out.
On the Democratic side, there are 3 in the Dem debate -Clinton, O'Malley and Sanders. PLUS Biden if he announces even the day of the debate. It will be moderated by Rachel Maddow, a way leftie from execrable MsNBC (CNN at least tries to be a good news network). Remember how tough the Fox Republican debate questioning was? This won't be like that. Clinton will do just fine.
I still have my doubts about Clinton but only if Biden or another heavyweight makes up their bloody mind.
As for the GOP, Ive got the last two nominees spot on, but this one has me stumped.
On a side note, nice to see the Russians recorded their first 'deconfliction' meeting with US officials regarding Syria/Iraq........then released a video of it to their friends at RT. They really love yanking the US chain.
Riverside is my neighbouring ward. Quite an interesting one. The south side (opposite the Millenium Stadium) is poor, largely working class with a few young professionals in recent years. The north side (opposite the cricket ground) is the most affluent part of inner Cardiff and full of BBC types.
Another Clinton flip flop -this time on the Trans Pacific Trade Pact. Now she's against it. As Secretary of State she called it the Gold Standard and negotiated it for Obama. I have now lost count of how many policy flip flops she has done. It has to be about 20.
The timing is key - before next week's Dem debate.
Combined with the news of the FBI extending its email investigation is it any surprise that the draft Biden group ran its first TV commercial today.
It's early days and there's a long way to go. He might recover. Doesn't seem likely.
Question is, if not Jeb and if not Donald, is one of the dead men going to re-emerge from currently single figure ratings?
I like Carly - her risk is her corporate career details and can she explain the layoffs etc. She won both debates. She takes away Clinton's main item - the phoney 'war on women'.
Like everyone else I thought Trump was bound to implode or crash and burn, but it hasn't happened. His weakness is policy and as a debater. When policy time comes that's when he'll maybe start to stumble. Also his honesty numbers are bad.
Carson is the wild card here - a female black professor at Penn called him a coon on TV recently. So he seems to be stirring things up. His comments - politically incorrect but accurate - on the collapse of the black nuclear family and black on black crime have got much attention.
Poring through current polls doesn't help - this is a serendipitous and pseudo-random process and utterly impossible to predict at present - we're all just guessing.
The S.E.C. Primary will cause some fall out.
On the Democratic side, there are 3 in the Dem debate -Clinton, O'Malley and Sanders. PLUS Biden if he announces even the day of the debate. It will be moderated by Rachel Maddow, a way leftie from execrable MsNBC (CNN at least tries to be a good news network). Remember how tough the Fox Republican debate questioning was? This won't be like that. Clinton will do just fine.
I still have my doubts about Clinton but only if Biden or another heavyweight makes up their bloody mind.
As for the GOP, Ive got the last two nominees spot on, but this one has me stumped.
On a side note, nice to see the Russians recorded their first 'deconfliction' meeting with US officials regarding Syria/Iraq........then released a video of it to their friends at RT. They really love yanking the US chain.
At present, it seems that the only thing that will stop Clinton getting the nomination is the FBI.
Biden will never be more popular than the day he announces.
What event led you to abandon the Communist Party?
I was a Eurocommunist in my teens - the idea being to get the ideals without the totalitarianism (which is why SeanT ranting about Pol Pot etc. isn't too relevant). "From each according to ability, to each according to need" seemed to me exactly how one should try to live (I haven't changed that belief), and as far as possible I wanted to help organise society on that basis.
It seemed possible for a while, and then it became evident that it wasn't going to work: too much bleak history in Eastern Europe casting its shadow. I'm not sure there was a specific event, merely that I grew up, looked around, and decided social democracy was a more viable ambition. I joined Labour on my 21st birthday.
Incidentally, I don't think Corbyn was ever a Communist. Bit of a right-winger really. :-)
There's only one real everlasting political conflict - the populace vs. those who would wield and abuse power over them. That power in the hands of the few can manifest itself in kings, corporations, banks, billionaires, or states - the latter being one of the most deadly and pernicious.
Can I suggest that religion (of any hue but particularly Islam) has a strong claim to be the most powerful and pernicious wielder and abuser of power over people. There cannot be a benevolent God because with a benevolent God there could be no religion.
It's early days and there's a long way to go. He might recover. Doesn't seem likely.
Question is, if not Jeb and if not Donald, is one of the dead men going to re-emerge from currently single figure ratings?
I like Carly - her risk is her corporate career details and can she explain the layoffs etc. She won both debates. She takes away Clinton's main item - the phoney 'war on women'.
Like everyone else I thought Trump was bound to implode or crash and burn, but it hasn't happened. His weakness is policy and as a debater. When policy time comes that's when he'll maybe start to stumble. Also his honesty numbers are bad.
Carson is the wild card here - a female black professor at Penn called him a coon on TV recently. So he seems to be stirring things up. His comments - politically incorrect but accurate - on the collapse of the black nuclear family and black on black crime have got much attention.
Poring through current polls doesn't help - this is a serendipitous and pseudo-random process and utterly impossible to predict at present - we're all just guessing.
The S.E.C. Primary will cause some fall out.
On the Democratic side, there are 3 in the Dem debate -Clinton, O'Malley and Sanders. PLUS Biden if he announces even the day of the debate. It will be moderated by Rachel Maddow, a way leftie from execrable MsNBC (CNN at least tries to be a good news network). Remember how tough the Fox Republican debate questioning was? This won't be like that. Clinton will do just fine.
I still have my doubts about Clinton but only if Biden or another heavyweight makes up their bloody mind.
As for the GOP, Ive got the last two nominees spot on, but this one has me stumped.
On a side note, nice to see the Russians recorded their first 'deconfliction' meeting with US officials regarding Syria/Iraq........then released a video of it to their friends at RT. They really love yanking the US chain.
I forgot to mention Rubio - particularly on foreign policy he's impressive. He can more than hold his own in debate and is a good stump speaker. One on one interviews he's even better
Sol Campbell meanwhile has moved on from mayoral ambitions to try and become a Tory Peer saying "I want to be a Lord. I'm not sure what of, or the title , but the next goal is to be a peer" http://www.westhamonline.net/forum_flat.php?8124246||mc=o||
That really shouldn't be one's goal in life. If he wants to be a politician he should earn some political respect first by standing for elected office somewhere.
Fair point, mind you how many peers now have stood for elected office? Probably a minority
How many have touted for a peerage without any semblance of a contribution to make, an exploitable talent to use or hint of intelligence? The man's a prick and as such is qualified only for a job in JC's shadow cabinet.
Many have even been appointed
True, but how many have had to so publicly tout for the appointment.
Also a sign Hillary is worried - Bill is turning up on late night talk shows
Hilary also turned up to meet her spoof doppelgänger on SNL last weekend, same as Sarah Palin once did. Funnily enough, no mention of emails there.
Edit: snip video
When SNL ran their Palin doppelganger the spoof made several comments ("I can see Russia from my window" etc) that people now think Palin said herself.
Nobody in the media would dare spoof Hillary that closely. They are still shilling for her.
QED. It was perhaps understandable to be communist in the 1930s, confronted with Hitler and Fascism (understandable though still hugely silly and misguided, I'd say).
But how could you be a communist - like so many leading and mediocre Labourites, from Corbyn down - AFTER Stalin's purges, AFTER the Cultural Revolution, AFTER the Khmer Rouge and the Hungarian Represssion and the Gulags and the Terror?
How could you possibly do that, without being, to put it politely, a total c*nt?
Proves my point. Left wing politics isn't logical, it's visceral. You don't become left wing because you're convinced by the facts, you are tribally left wing and you find the facts to fit.
And eventually they come across a contradiction that they cannot resolve - and become Conservatives. Mind you - no one has ever accused the left of being rational.
I wouldn't read too much into the lack of an SNP candidate in An Taobh Siar Agus Nis (West Side and Ness), as Mr MacLeod (who received 86.9% of the vote last night), was a leader of the Yes campaign on the Islands during last year's referendum campaign, and is thus unlikely to be overly dissimilar to any official SNP candidate.
Comments
How would the media treat an ex-CP member aspiring to power nowadays?
My personal experience for a long time has been that people treat youthful CP involvement as a curious past eccentricity, like saying you used to be a Zoroastrian or a Monopoly addict. It's at least 20 years since I met anyone who recoiled in horror.
There is a serious note here. The CP were the only sizable organisation opposed to the Nazis. The rest were appeasing in one form or another.
The documentary didn't mention him joining the Republicans in Spain against Franco. He was not an idealist only. He actually practised what he preached. He was a Socialist indeed but no pacifist !
I am not sure why many expected him to join the SDP. He had Labour blood running through his veins.
I intend to re-read the "The Time of My Life" - quite easily the best autobiography I have read.
Healey was a Communist throughout the Soviet-Nazi Pact. What do you make of that?
Not quite. He did resign from the CP on the fall of France. He mentions in "The Time of My Life" that he did regret his late resignation which he put it down to "inertia and indifference than from conviction"
I don't think anybody at that time thought that the pact made Germany and the USSR friends. It was seen as buying time for the Soviets. And it did work. Since December 1941, the Germans were on the back foot, long before Johnny Come Lately arrived with the chewing gums !
You need to read some of journals of that period. Comitern made it very clear that Germany was now an ally of Communism to the their members. It wasn't presented as a marriage of convenience.
My grandfather was attacked by hard left organisers of wild cat strikes in the Glasgow dockyards during the Pact period - physically. They thought he was a ring leader among those who insisted that only strike they would support was an official union strike, during the war. They wanted to disrupt the capitalist war against "their" ally.
Is that why hundreds of thousands of working class people thronged our various stadia in 1946 to watch a friendly Soviet football team ? It was their way of thanking the Russians. I also knew a few people who lived through that period. Their view of Russia is different. The Russians broke the Nazi back !
The Russians certainly made the greatest contribution and paid the greatest price for defeat of the Nazis. But if ever a struggle was existential it was theirs. The Russian people understood that and it must have been very motivational. All us Brits knew about the war on the Eastern front was what the censor allowed to be told. Churchill knew but Joe Public didn't know what an evil man Stalin was. IMHO the worst of the 20th century dictators.
The timing is key - before next week's Dem debate.
Combined with the news of the FBI extending its email investigation is it any surprise that the draft Biden group ran its first TV commercial today.
Biden will never be more popular than the day he announces.
I was surprised, not at getting the Nobel Prize, but getting it in chemistry: I expected to get it in medicine.
Confident fellow, eh?
Edit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56gnAHcVP98