A Political Thread pt. 2

[Ragey Erasmus]

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2022/0422/1293621-northern-ireland-protocol-goodwill/

Westminster threatening to break international law again to distract from the shambles Bozo got himself and his party in. Give it a rest and get out of my country please lads.

It's staggering how the Tories keep managing to point to their own failures and go "look at this mess someone else definitely created. Not to worry, the Tories are here to fix it!"

Seriously, they've been in power for a decade. At this point there is next to nothing that can be ****** up that they have not already touched and yet they magically seem to say they should be the ones to "fix" things whilst glossing over the fact they are the ones who ****** it up in the first place, and have done so repeatedly.

 

[McTallshort]

Ukrainian troops in UK being trained on armoured vehicle use

The Mastiff, Wolfhound and Husky armoured vehicles are some of the kit the Ukrainian troops are being trained to use.

www.forces.net

Interesting. Ukrainian troops being trained on anti air kit in Poland and British vehicles in Britain with I'm guessing the proviso that the same kit will be supplied to the Ukraine.

 

[Reiser99]

Ukraine war: Russia aiming for full control of south, commander says

A senior Russian commander is quoted as saying Moscow plans to take full control of the south and east.

www.bbc.com

Yep it's about de-nazifying Ukraine, certainly not about using Russian speaking areas to expand Russia.

Watch out Moldova, you're next.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Ukraine war: Russia aiming for full control of south, commander says

A senior Russian commander is quoted as saying Moscow plans to take full control of the south and east.

www.bbc.com

Yep it's about de-nazifying Ukraine, certainly not about using Russian speaking areas to expand Russia.

Watch out Moldova, you're next.

Moldova should really just apply for NATO now, it's virtually guaranteed that Russia will go after them if they take southern Ukraine...

 

[Bada-Bing!]

This is just what Hitler did over 80 years ago. Just tragic that it's happening again.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Parking fines are equivalent to Fixed penalty notice for breaking Covid rules.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Ukraine war: Russia aiming for full control of south, commander says

A senior Russian commander is quoted as saying Moscow plans to take full control of the south and east.

www.bbc.com

Yep it's about de-nazifying Ukraine, certainly not about using Russian speaking areas to expand Russia.

Watch out Moldova, you're next.

AlJazeera corroborating that report. So Lukashenko's map showing planned military incursion into Moldova was accurate. It is almost unthinkable that the significant Russian speaking populations of the Baltics won't also be a long term objective if NATO loses unity and/or considers its ongoing strategy of refusing to sell helicopters, jets and tanks to Ukraine as the policy it's going to stick with. Which will embolden Russia to call NATO's bluff about whether it will engage in a major scale war to defend small nations.

If you have any sort of Russian speaking minority population, were formerly part of the USSR and have a desire for seeking your own independent democratic future as a nation, then you are probably on the table as a target for invasion, occupation and long term subjugation. Particularly if you lie between Russia and Kaliningrad. There can be no link up with Transnistria without occupying a huge territory where Russian is not the main language.

Luhansk is already lost. The suggestion Ukraine can defend its territory and citizens through purely defensive weaponry is as bonkers as it ever was and is being evidenced as a falsehood every day.

Crimea was the Rhineland. Donbas is Sudetenland. Occupation of southwestern Ukraine will be Molotov-Ribbentrop (i.e. any facade of seeking only to protect "your people" is dropped) and a sign of a war without limits from a regime that has lied about its intentions at every turn. Then it becomes a question of how much Lebensraum will satisfy this particular merciless butcher?

The fall of a Ukrainian corridor to Transnistria must be opposed by all means of conventional weaponry by any student of history. Surely this annoucement will prompt a collective response beyond crossing your fingers about defensive weaponry and asking Zelensky for a photo-op?

 

[Reiser99]

Gun deaths were the leading killer of US children in 2020

Guns have overtaken car crashes as the leading cause of death among young Americans.

www.bbc.com

And yet still many Americans won't admit the country has a gun problem.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Gun deaths were the leading killer of US children in 2020

Guns have overtaken car crashes as the leading cause of death among young Americans.

www.bbc.com

And yet still many Americans won't admit the country has a gun problem.

That last video was really sad. Kind of summed it up that free access to a loaded gun allowed a 10 year boy kill his sister and having to live with that for the rest of his life.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Finally firm reports that Slovenia and Poland will provide tanks to Ukraine that they are trained in. With UK and Germany providing replacements to to Poland and Slovenia. No idea why it took months and the loss of Luhansk for the penny to drop, but it's a very, very significant step. Apparently the Green Foreign Minister in Germany is a major hawk. It's a funny old world.

Jets and helicopters must be added. There is no mental gymnastics you can do to say tanks are okay but offensive air units are a no go. Get those three components supplied to Ukraine in the short term and provide training in non-Soviet equivalents for Ukranians over the longer term and perhaps there is still a prospect of them surviving.

It's not filtering through yet into the most reliable news sources but the BBC is kind of half reporting it online. That boastful Russian general might have just done the world a favour by announcing plans to invade Moldova. It almost makes me wonder if he is one of the good guys aiming for this sort of response.

Slovenia to Hand Over M-84 Tanks to Ukraine, Get German Leopard and Marder in Return | Defense Express

Germany isn’t yet ready to directly supply Ukraine with military aid to help defending from russian occupiers. Instead, they will pay certain price for supplying Soviet armament to Ukraine

en.defence-ua.com

 

[McTallshort]

Finally firm reports that Slovenia and Poland will provide tanks to Ukraine that they are trained in. With UK and Germany providing replacements to to Poland and Slovenia. No idea why it took months and the loss of Luhansk for the penny to drop, but it's a very, very significant step. Apparently the Green Foreign Minister in Germany is a major hawk. It's a funny old world.

Jets and helicopters must be added. There is no mental gymnastics you can do to say tanks are okay but offensive air units are a no go. Get those three components supplied to Ukraine in the short term and provide training in non-Soviet equivalents for Ukranians over the longer term and perhaps there is still a prospect of them surviving.

It's not filtering through yet into the most reliable news sources but the BBC is kind of half reporting it online. That boastful Russian general might have just done the world a favour by announcing plans to invade Moldova. It almost makes me wonder if he is one of the good guys aiming for this sort of response.

Slovenia to Hand Over M-84 Tanks to Ukraine, Get German Leopard and Marder in Return | Defense Express

Germany isn’t yet ready to directly supply Ukraine with military aid to help defending from russian occupiers. Instead, they will pay certain price for supplying Soviet armament to Ukraine

en.defence-ua.com

Guessing the German green party really want to stop buying fossil fuels from Russia....

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Florida's governor signs law revoking Disney powers

Disney's special status allowed it to in effect operate its own municipal government in Florida.

www.bbc.co.uk

Mini Trump throwing his weight around.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Florida's governor signs law revoking Disney powers

Disney's special status allowed it to in effect operate its own municipal government in Florida.

www.bbc.co.uk

Mini Trump throwing his weight around.

By law in the USA, corporations are people. Theoretically this could be presented as a "person" being targeted by the government for expressing their views politically... Nothing illegal in what he has done but, as with a lot of the knee-jerk responses by Republicans in the USA, I think it won't be long before unintended consequences of their actions come to the fore.

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

By law in the USA, corporations are people. Theoretically this could be presented as a "person" being targeted by the government for expressing their views politically... Nothing illegal in what he has done but, as with a lot of the knee-jerk responses by Republicans in the USA, I think it won't be long before unintended consequences of their actions come to the fore.

By that tact it was weird af to begin with that Disney even had that level of power

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

By that tact it was weird af to begin with that Disney even had that level of power

Oh yeah, everything about it was weird. TBH I don't think there is anything fundamentally wrong with Disney not having that power but everyone knows De Santis' reasoning for it and it's a slightly dodgy ground when you establish that the government can take punitive action against private entities for expressing opposing political views to what is a pretty shitty piece of legislation.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Jacob Rees-Mogg empty desk note to civil servants insulting, says union

The minister, who wants civil servants to stop working from home, left a note saying "sorry you were out".

www.bbc.co.uk

What a twat

 

[Bada-Bing!]

The awful truth is dawning: Putin may win in Ukraine. The result would be catastrophe | Simon Tisdall

A Russian victory would herald a new age of instability, economic fragmentation, hunger for millions and social unrest

www.theguardian.com

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

The awful truth is dawning: Putin may win in Ukraine. The result would be catastrophe | Simon Tisdall

A Russian victory would herald a new age of instability, economic fragmentation, hunger for millions and social unrest

www.theguardian.com

I know right. Who could possibly have thought that Ukraine could lose a war with a massive shortfall of tanks, helicopters and jets? And that Ukraine losing would be really, really bad for the future of the planet on many levels. It's almost like the wall to wall commentary and cheerleading from NATO nations is a bunch of hot air with zero impact on the actual theatre of war.

This has to be a line in the sand moment for democratic nations against tyranny and as the article suggests, comparatively standing on the sidelines today may create decades of additional problems. The Russian army is eminently beatable if Ukraine gets the proper supplies to retain control over their skies and ultimately counterattack.

 

[Gavin]

Tories accuse Angela Rayner of Basic Instinct leg uncrossing at PMQs

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has been mischievously accused of 'pulling a Basic Instinct' in an attempt to distract Boris Johnson at Prime Minister's Questions. She categorically denies it.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Tories accuse Angela Rayner of Basic Instinct ploy to distract Boris: MPs claim Labour deputy leader likes to put PM 'off his stride' by crossing and uncrossing her legs at PMQs

Ms Rayner, 41, a socialist grandmother who left school at 16 while pregnant and with no qualifications before becoming a care worker, has frequently landed blows on the Prime Minister during sparky – some say flirty – exchanges.

I mean this is just a mental story to run with

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Tories accuse Angela Rayner of Basic Instinct leg uncrossing at PMQs

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has been mischievously accused of 'pulling a Basic Instinct' in an attempt to distract Boris Johnson at Prime Minister's Questions. She categorically denies it.

www.dailymail.co.uk

I mean this is just a mental story to run with

"One MP said: 'She knows she can't compete with Boris's Oxford Union debating training, but she has other skills which he lacks. "

What...? The level of sycophantic dribbling is so cringeworthy. There are many things Johnson is but a skilled debater is not one of them.