US politics

[Glenryck Pilchards]

I have been paying close attention to the Ukraine conflict, and in short, I believe they will be fine whether or not they receive support from the USA. Ukraine's main M.O. at the moment is not to join NATO, but to join the European Union, who are trying to fast-track Ukrainian membership, but there has been resistance by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and more surprisingly German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Since World War 2 there has been an American presence with army and air bases located throughout Europe, but it was anticipated that the Americans would close down these bases within the next 20 years and Europe would fend for themselves from then on. However, with the developments of the last three years, it was decided by Europe to expedite this process. 

Membership of the European Union would see unilateral support for the Ukraine and they will be able to get the latest military equipment and will have help from a European Defence Force. With the Biden administration only providing care packages to Ukraine here and there, and a threat of a Trump government seeming likely, the European Union made the decision that they would need their own military force. 

The formation of a European Defence Force is already in full swing. The governments of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark have set the wheels in motion to merge their armed forces to become a united Nordic Armed Forces. All four nations are fully aware of the threat from Russia and are doing everything in their power to quell the Russians.

It has been all doom and gloom in the Western media of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but Russia has suffered unprecedented losses in manpower and equipment. The situation is so bad for the Russian army, they are repurposing WW2 tanks which have been sitting in museums due to the lack of modern tanks, and the modern tanks they do have are been destroyed by Ukraine or captured by farmers. 

Ukraine has grinded Russia to the brink and whilst the conflict takes a break during "Rasputitsa", the Ukranians are fattening their troops up, whilst making their own munitions and missiles. Russian soldiers on the other hand are bin dipping as supplies are simply not reaching them leaving them cold and starving. Ukrainian troops are rotated regularly from the frontline to keep them fresh and motivated, whilst Russian troops are heading into the mincer with little or no hope of surviving. Those who rebel get shot by their higher-ups.

One of the biggest turning points in the war is North Korean troops bolstering the Russian army in the Kursk region. This has opened the door for South Korea to assist Ukraine. South Korea has one of the biggest stockpiles of weapons in the world, and it is in talks with Ukraine to send some of its older weapons, which will fill the void that the USA could leave behind. 

The biggest game-changer in this war however has been drones. Ukraine is producing dozens of drones daily and now has some of the highest-skilled drone operators in the world and has destroyed a plethora of infrastructure on Russian soil including refineries, vodka distilleries, and factories. It is also rumoured that the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile test, which exploded in September was actually destroyed by a Ukrainian drone. 

I have been getting all my information bizarrely from a Middlesbrough FC fan forum. One of the posters is a TV producer who has worked on Countryfile among other shows and is good friends with a Swedish general, who is now leading the European Defence Force. He sends his "missives" regularly and  provides updates from the frontline 7-10 days before the mainstream media reports on it. I don't expect anyone to trawl through the 7,000+ posts, but if anyone is interested it can be found here: https://fmttmboro.com/index.php?threads/the-end.36813/

[d-d-d-dAz]

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/11/06/2024-election-results-live-coverage-updates-analysis/bernie-sanders-election-response-00187980

Scathing from Bernie Sanders, but for my money is completely right.

I know it's been discussed already here, but I'm absolutely fascinated to see where the Democrats go next.

[garynysmon]

Just deleted the Twitter app from my phone and set up a Bluesky account.

Won’t make a blind bit of difference but giving Elon Musk’s hate filled platform a little less engagement makes me feel a bit better.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

13 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

Just deleted the Twitter app from my phone and set up a Bluesky account.

Won’t make a blind bit of difference but giving Elon Musk’s hate filled platform a little less engagement makes me feel a bit better.

I’m considering doing the same. I keep having the absolute worst of humanity showing up on my feed despite not following any of them. That and the endless bots, OnlyFans accounts clogging up all the replies and ads every 3 posts have tipped me past my limit.

Do you know if there is a way of importing all the people I follow from one site to the other? It would be a bit long winded to have to do them all individually. 

[garynysmon]

12 minutes ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

I’m considering doing the same. I keep having the absolute worst of humanity showing up on my feed.

It really is the worst. I have no issue reading opinions from all over the spectrum, its healthy.

The issue with X is that the overwhelming majority of blue tick subscribers are MAGA types, paying for X and that blue tick is part of their political identity, their Stone Island badge if you will.

As a result your feed is bombarded with right wing to far right stuff over people you’re actually interested in. Their comments are amplified over everyone else’s and its just killed it for me.

That was a bit long winded, I could have just said that Elon Musk is a fucking cunt really.

Edited November 7, 2024 by garynysmon

[King Coconut]

9 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

I could have just said that Elon Musk is a fucking cunt really.

And he's a paedo.

[JNLister]

Among the gallows humor, the best low-level shit stirring suggestion I've seen so far is for Biden to resign a couple of days before the inauguration just so that Harris becomes the 47th president, thus making the "Trump 47" merch wrong.

Edited November 7, 2024 by JNLister

[neil]

On 11/7/2024 at 11:21 AM, garynysmon said:

The issue with X is that the overwhelming majority of blue tick subscribers are MAGA types, paying for X and that blue tick is part of their political identity, their Stone Island badge if you will.

As a result your feed is bombarded with right wing to far right stuff over people you’re actually interested in. Their comments are amplified over everyone else’s and its just killed it for me.

Even more galling when you hear the same people going on about how "libs are in an echo chamber"

[Merzbow]

I don't think leftist echo chambers can even really exist, we all bloody argue with each other all the time.

[JNLister]

This is what's being interpreted as a landslide, proof that polls/forecasts calling it a close election were wrong, a comprehensive rejection of the Democrat platform, and the US population as a single entity supporting the Trump agenda and leadership style.
 

In vote share, it's the fourth closest presidential election in history. Other than Bush-Gore, it's the closest in the past 56 years.

[garynysmon]

17 hours ago, Merzbow said:

I don't think leftist echo chambers can even really exist, we all bloody argue with each other all the time.

This is probably more true than you think.

In my Parliamentary constituency, for example, we had a Tory MP who was disposed by Plaid Cymru in this year's GE.

The local Conservatives are still crying foul over how Reform "cost them the seat" without any hint of irony that the only reason she was elected in the first place on around 30% of the vote in 2019 was because the left wing vote split almost exactly 50/50 between Plaid and Labour, letting her in through the middle.

Until the rise of Reform the Tory party was just very good at hoovering up the entire right of centre vote, while the left was always pretty split between Lab/SNP/Plaid/LD/Greens etc.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

So Devil in nearly human guise Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress to take up the role of Attorney General under Trump, and also blocking the release of an inquiry into his sexual misconduct as congressional inquiries only get published if the person is still a member of the House. Sounds like a double win for Matt. Today he has withdrawn from the nomination, so not only is he not going to be AG he is also no longer in the House. Double win for everyone else. 

[JNLister]

The conspiracy theory view would be that he was picked to be the token "well that proves the process works and weeds out the unsuitable ones, so anyone else who goes forward for a confirmation vote must be OK."

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

He's a big sacrifice for Trump because Gaetz is one of his strongest supporters. Mind you Trump would sacrifice everyone bar himself. 

[Guest]

16 hours ago, JNLister said:

The conspiracy theory view would be that he was picked to be the token "well that proves the process works and weeds out the unsuitable ones, so anyone else who goes forward for a confirmation vote must be OK."

Hubris seems more likely.