Since nobody else here has mentioned it, I thought I might as well start a thread about the general election that took place in the UK on Thursday. The smarmy PM Theresa May, I expect following ill-advised prompting from her close associates, decided to call what is known as a 'snap election.' The next election wasn't to take place until 2020, but since her party only had a narrow majority in Parliament, and with a bigger majority she felt she would be more empowered, she decided that another election would be just the thing. The media in the UK has almost without exception been sneering at the leader of the main opposition party ever since he was elected, and it seems that May and her advisors were convinced that the snap election would be effectively an end to that party. They were wrong. The election was disastrous for May's ambitions. Her party lost its majority, while the opposition gained nicely. She has been forced to try a coalition with one of the nastiest parties in the UK, home to creationists, supporters of institutionalised hatred of any sexual orientation except heterosexuals, and climate deniers, to name some. They are also heavily associated with the Loyalist terrorists of the Troubles. I could go on, but for now I'll just post a link to an article that explores the background and implications of the election in some detail: 'Britain: The End of a Fantasy' "To understand the sensational outcome of the British election, one must ask a basic question. What happens when phony populism collides with the real thing? "Last year’s triumph for Brexit has often been paired with the rise of Donald Trump as evidence of a populist surge. But most of those joining in with the ecstasies of English nationalist self-assertion were imposters. Brexit is an elite project dressed up in rough attire. When its Oxbridge-educated champions coined the appealing slogan “Take back control,” they cleverly neglected to add that they really meant control by and for the elite. The problem is that, as the elections showed, too many voters thought the control should belong to themselves. "Theresa May is a classic phony Brexiter. She didn’t support it in last year’s referendum and there is no reason to think that, in private, she has ever changed her mind. But she saw that the path to power led toward the cliff edge, from which Britain will take its leap into an unknown future entirely outside the European Union. Her strategy was one of appeasement—of the nationalist zealots in her own party, of the voters who had backed the hard-right UK Independence Party (UKIP), and of the hysterically jingoistic Tory press, especially The Daily Mail." Continues ...
Interesting turn of events. She got greedy and wanted to consolidate more power for herself and her party but wound up taking a cream pie to the face. I can't say I'm disappointed, because I'm not. I'm liberal, and her party's policies sound conservative. I believe in a government that assists people, especially it's own citizens, in need, not one that is greedy, selfish and unashamed to allow it's citizens to suffer and die needlessly. Also, I hear trump may cancel his visit to your country. Damn, I was looking forward to seeing him humiliated there....and also to get rid of him for a few days....maybe long enough to enact a law that doesn't allow him back in the U.S. ....OK, that's unrealistic, but I am unabashed about it. In any case, I see this as a positive step for liberal causes, so it works for me.
On an unrelated note, you've posted the last five threads here. That's gotta be some kind of record. I take it the conservatives here are all on vacation or at some conference or convention somewhere swapping stories about "libruls" and such... or they are just being quiet... or maybe they all died.... ...OK, now I'm back into unrealistic territory again, similar to the so-called conservatives here not wanting to post anything after realizing that trump is causing their party harm kind of bs.
The one fellow died, of course, while his buddy CoinOKC has flounced, and seems to be sticking it. Though toughcoins posted a couple of times since then, he's been pretty scarce, too. David disappeared a while back, and arizonaJack as far as I can tell comes and goes. I won't speculate on what's going on, but if the Trump supporters and other conservatives are not going to show up I'll do my part to keep some content flowing through this place.
The Conservative party in the UK is somewhat to the right of the Democratic party in the US, and have moved to the right more in the past ten years or so I think, more blatantly showing themselves to be the party of the privileged and the corporations. At the same time they've shown themselves to be all too willing to step on the necks of working people and sell the country's social safety net to the highest bidder. As for Trump, even the Conservatives aren't thrilled by him, and pretty much everybody else besides the raving bigots despises him. 'By his every deed, the US president proves he should not be welcome here' "Donald Trump is not a fit and proper person to hold the office of president of the United States. That is a view widely held in the US and among America’s European allies, by politicians and diplomats in government and by rank-and-file voters repelled by his gross egoism, narcissism and what Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has rightly termed his “stupefying ignorance”. It is a view we wholeheartedly share and have repeatedly expressed, before and after Trump’s narrow election victory last November. "Trump is an habitual liar, as evidenced again in last week’s sworn congressional testimony by his sacked FBI director, James Comey. Trump is a bully, as Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, among many others, can testify from personal experience. And Trump is a coward. When put on the spot, as over his authorisation of a disastrous special forces raid in Yemen in January or his bogus claim that Britain’s GCHQ bugged him, his craven instinct was to shift blame to others. "Since taking office, Trump’s dangerous, loutish and irresponsible behaviour has exceeded his critics’ worst nightmares. He has fuelled Islamist extremism by escalating US military involvement in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, at a rising cost in civilian lives. He has exacerbated divisions by his attempts to ban Muslims travelling to the US. He threatens war with Iran while cutting foreign aid and cosying up to autocrats and human rights abusers in Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and Turkey. "The list of Trump’s ill-judged actions, reckless comments and destructive policies goes on and on. For Britain, this phenomenon poses particular challenges. The president’s personal failings and damaging policies are combining to threaten Britain’s national interests in fundamental ways. And unless Britain’s leaders and the British people, demonstrating their bottomless opposition in inventive ways, are prepared to stand up to him, the “special relationship” with the US, long seen as the bedrock of this country’s security and prosperity, may be at serious risk." He might never come to the UK, if the reported conditions for his visit are accurate. I don't think he's ever going to be greeted by cheering crowds in Britain; rather the contrary. 'There’s a campaign for people to moon Trump when he comes to Britain'
I've been here 5 or 6 years now, and this is by far the longest they've gone without commenting. I'm not going to complain, far from it, I'm just noting the occasion lol Yeah, non-cents, aka "rlm's cents", died a while back. I noticed something was up after a couple days, because he was someone who posted nearly every day of the week. I noticed tough-tokens respond a few times then he tapered away too. I would think he'd have posted more, since he seems to enjoy the arguments. I still think David went into politics in his home state and had to give up being a dick here, in case it came back to bite him in the ass. That said, he could have simply lost interest. Or, he could have created a new ID and pretended to be someone else.... he's done that before. Or, he could have died too, as he had mentioned that he had developed diabetes a couple years ago. Jack doesn't post much, usually preferring to cheer-lead someone else's post. Skippy... blah. Any and or all of them could also be on vacation, as it's nearing that time of year. Reminds me of when I was head of maintenance and we got downsized to just me and another guy... who always took ten days off for Christmas and the 4th of July... leaving me alone to do all the work, except here I'm doing this for..... fun?
I've noted the change. In years past, your Conservative party was similar to the Democrats here, but I've noticed they've taken a few steps to the right, as you noted above.
That reminds me of the republican false claim/belief that Obama was/is scorned by the World, that his Presidency harmed the way the World thought of the U.S. I find it odd that republicans say such things until I look at why they are doing it, which is to indoctrinate their base into believing that all things Obama, all things liberal, are bad for the country. It doesn't matter to the messengers that the message is false and that most people in the country and the world know it, what matters to them is that it rallies their base into a frenzy of hatred for all things liberal. Once I look at that, I understand the issue, that propaganda is their game, and that their base is more than happy to allow themselves to become so hateful of liberals, to have that validation for their hatred coming from the leaders of their party and country. So, from my point of view, or in my opinion, the World views Obama in a generally positive light and trump in a generally negative light.... but to conservatives the opposite is true. That there is overwhelming evidence that I am right means little to the conservatives here, as they prefer to believe in the false narrative of their propaganda, since it validates their hatred for liberals and my opinion doesn't.
lol... I've noticed that, and people here have done it, at least to trump tower or trump-owned properties.
David was the first one to welcome me to the board. He was then a relative newbie. Our relationship quickly went down hill. I was not very nice to him and he responded by not being very nice to me. And his posts were sillier than mine, which I took every opportunity to point out. I’m sorry cents died. He reminded me of a crusty old uncle. I think he was probably a decent guy underneath. He didn’t check his sources very well. On to topic, the most striking thing for me was not Labor’s good showing at the expense of the Conservatives. That seemed fairly predictable, actually. What I was not prepared for was UKIP taking it in the shorts. For some reason I had expected a deepening of the Right-Left divide, with both Right and Left picking up seats from the Conservative “middle”. Didn’t happen that way. I doubt that it’s the end of UKIP though. They will be back.
I gotta say, I like this place much better without them. Anybody up for a meaningful discussion? LOL! Oh yeah, the Brits. I kept thinking that I don't know what a snap election is but can we have one too? I think May was weak from the onset mostly thanks to Brexit but also because she cuddled up to Trump immediately. She seemed to be looking for sort of a Reagan/Thatcher dynamic that was never going to happen. Trump is no Reagan and May doesn't have the support of the people the way Thatcher did. My prediction is that the May and Trump will jointly start some piss-ant war to try and save both their asses. Watch for the drumbeats to start.
Nobody or media dares to point out the real cause of Theresa May's failure - that British people's wake up when they knew they were cheated by the government. Police??? Crisis actors??? Both??? You decide! In the video BP points out the cammo pants, beard, T-shirt & vest. I also noticed the arm tattoos on cammo boy that BP didn’t point out. Last photo shows all of those things plus a belt of canisters (fake bombs maybe) that look more like water bottles to me. Anyway, this story 'someone' want us to believe is starting to stink on ice!
