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Post by Zenrider on Jun 14, 2020 5:07:51 GMT
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Post by mikey on Jun 14, 2020 8:04:35 GMT
Not sure if I have recommended this podcast before. scene on radio It has just concluded its fourth series but has looked at the issues confronting America and showing in a historical context. The last series was particularly interesting and by coincidence recorded at the same time as COVID 19 and the BLM protests. There are a lot of episodes to listen to and I recommend listening to the full final series. However, the concluding episode is worth listening to, if only in isolation. It helps explain the problem with American ‘democracy’ the theme of the series and what needs t9 happen to change the democratic process to make it more representative of the people. It is not going to happen unless people get out there and vote! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/scene-on-radio/id1036276968?i=1000477455236 |
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Post by Zenrider on Jun 14, 2020 22:56:39 GMT
Voter suppression is a real problem, but people believing their vote doesn't matter and don't vote is a far bigger one.
Sadly, America's problem is not just America's problem, and color isn't the only problem. Even amongst those who may not believe they can be born a better color, there are those that believe their religion is the only right religion.
Trump, like last time, is thinking he's going to lose this election. Which he's already talking about it being rigged, even though the Republicans overwhelmingly are the only ones doing any rigging. If Trump wins this election the whole world should worry. Except for Putin in Russia, of course.
If he loses, don't be surprised if he, and his entire family, quickly takes residence in another country. One that won't extradite them back to the USA of course. Especially, if the Democrats also win Congress and the Senate.
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Post by sc on Jun 30, 2020 11:14:11 GMT
Interesting piece by ukpollingreport.co.uk on the latest polls, good start for Kier and positive hope for Labour, although a still a Mountain to climb, but a great start  "The average Tory lead in June’s Voting intention polls so far is around 5 points, with the Tories in the low forties, Labour up in the high thirties. The level of party support appears to have settled down since the fading of the “rally round the flag” effect in May. Looking away from the coronavirus polling it is now almost two months since Keir Starmer became Labour leader, so we have an initial chance to see how he’s registered with the general public. When I write about results for “who would make the best Prime Minister?” question on social media I often get comments along the lines of “its easier to look like a good Prime Minister when you are Prime Minister”. This is correct, but it doesn’t devalue the question. It is indeed easier to look Prime Ministerial when you are Prime Minister, and this is an advantage that the PM will enjoy in real life, and will enjoy come any election. It is not the case that Prime Ministers always lead on this question. When he was leader of the opposition Tony Blair was consistently ahead of John Major on this question, David Cameron often polled ahead of Gordon Brown. Therefore Starmer’s ratings in his first few months look promising – YouGov had him neck-and-neck with Boris Johnson earlier this month, the latest Opinium poll for the Observer has him two points ahead of Johnson as preferred PM. Questions asking about Starmer in his own right also seem positive. He has solidly positive approval ratings from YouGov, Ipsos MORI, Survation and Opinium. YouGov’s questions on leader attributes give him strongly positive ratings on being decisive, strong, competent and likeable. By 40% to 32% people say he does look like a Prime Minister in waiting. It is a cliche to say that first impressions count, but that doesn’t mean it is untrue. History is littered with opposition leaders who really didn’t come across as being capable or substantial figures in their early months in the role and never recovered. Starmer became leader at an unusual time – the coronavirus outbreak very much dictated what he spoke about and concentrated upon. It gave him an immediate challenge of getting his response right to a major crisis. In one sense this is an opportunity – it is a large, serious issue where the leader of the opposition can show they are a serious politician with serious things to say. However, it also brings the risk of being ignored as an irrelevance, or being seen as opportunistic if you pitch it wrong (compare and contrast with the failed Tory leaders during their period in opposition – Iain Duncan Smith became Tory leader immediately after 911… and was ignored; William Hague shortly before the death of Princess Diana, and struggled to speak for the people in a way that came naturally to Tony Blair). Judging by his initial poll ratings, Starmer appears to have passed this initial test. It’s worth noting that all the polling I’ve referred to here comes from before the sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey. While that is certainly important for what it tells us about Starmer’s willingness to stamp his authority upon his party, I don’t expect it to make much difference to this figures (realistically the sacking of a shadow cabinet minister is not often something that produces any reverberations beyond the most seasoned Westminster watchers). But as ever, we shall see. Right now Starmer’s popularity isn’t translating into a polling lead for the Labour party, but having a leader with a popular image who is seen as a plausible Prime Minister gives them the right foundation should the Government’s support falter. The Conservative Government has two huge challenges ahead of them (Brexit and Corona). Either would be daunting alone, let alone both together. For the past few years they have faced the luxury of being up against a not particularly effective opposition, riven by internal divides and with a leader whose support was deep rather than wide. It’ll be interesting to see how they cope with their challenges when they are up against a more substantial opposition." ukpollingreport.co.uk |
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Post by olirow on Jun 30, 2020 16:12:46 GMT
So have you changed your allegiance then SC? Or still too early to say?
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Post by sc on Jun 30, 2020 16:47:33 GMT
It feels like a strange thing to ask me. My beliefs have remained solid for probably 35 odd years, my beliefs haven’t changed, but some parties are fluid in their beliefs and so parties move from and to people, much like the bubbles in lava lamps, trying to satisfy the majority of the population. If you look at page 1 of this thread it’s clear where my heart lay, and throughout this thread I would hope my posts were usually wanting Labour to fix itself. It still has a long way to go to repair itself, but only someone that cares, tells a friend they need fixing.
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Post by philspinynorman on Jul 1, 2020 9:47:11 GMT
"It’s worth noting that all the polling I’ve referred to here comes from before the sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey. While that is certainly important for what it tells us about Starmer’s willingness to stamp his authority upon his party, I don’t expect it to make much difference to this figures (realistically the sacking of a shadow cabinet minister is not often something that produces any reverberations beyond the most seasoned Westminster watchers). But as ever, we shall see."
The sacking demonstrates that Starmer really is just another Blair. He mistakingly interpreted RLB's actions as anti-semitic (it wasn't - it is rightful to critisise ANY individual, or group of individuals, that behave in a negative way towards other individuals, or groups of individuals, regardless of how the individual is / groups are identified [colour, race, religion et al]) and rid the Labour party of someone who truly represents what the Labour party should be.
I seriously hope that the young voters of this country wake up and smell the bad breath of politics (and the media) here and move to make a change. For a brief while it looked as though that might have happened with Corbyn, but alas it was not to be.
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Post by Zenrider on Jul 2, 2020 17:42:18 GMT
An additional problem we are having here, like we need anymore, is people have gone fireworks crazy. Sure, they are illegal in most states, but people just go to the states they are legal to buy them. It's loosely if ever enforced in the states that it's illegal. People used to wait until the fourth of July and New Years to set some off. I'm thinking with people that are still self isolating and avoiding having large gatherings, they are using them for birthdays, graduations, and stuff to make up for not having big parties. Unfortunately, people don't give much thought to what they are doing and the conditions around them, so some places have already had fires, especially in the western dry states.
Of course, the traitors in the White House far exceed that issue. It's apparent the entire Republican Party has sold out. OK anyone who has been paying attention has known that for a very, very long time, decades even, but now are completely controlled by Putin. Seriously, Putin paying the Taliban a bounty for every American Soldier killed and the proof in money transfers. A real President would be outraged and declaring sanctions if not war. Instead we have more of the distraction clown act.
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Post by mikey on Jul 2, 2020 18:04:52 GMT
An additional problem we are having here, like we need anymore, is people have gone fireworks crazy. Sure, they are illegal in most states, but people just go to the states they are legal to buy them. It's loosely if ever enforced in the states that it's illegal. People used to wait until the fourth of July and New Years to set some off. I'm thinking with people that are still self isolating and avoiding having large gatherings, they are using them for birthdays, graduations, and stuff to make up for not having big parties. Unfortunately, people don't give much thought to what they are doing and the conditions around them, so some places have already had fires, especially in the western dry states. Of course, the traitors in the White House far exceed that issue. It's apparent the entire Republican Party has sold out. OK anyone who has been paying attention has known that for a very, very long time, decades even, but now are completely controlled by Putin. Seriously, Putin paying the Taliban a bounty for every American Soldier killed and the proof in money transfers. A real President would be outraged and declaring sanctions if not war. Instead we have more of the distraction clown act. I was disgusted to hear in the news that the queen had a long phone conversation with Trump on Monday. She should have nothing to do with him and demand an apology for his actions to Britain after he was given a state visit. The bounty was for UK troops as well as American and trump’s relationship with Putin meant this report was either deliberately ignored by the CiC or his aides knew that in presenting it to trump would Jeopardise their careers. Trumps rhetoric against the media has seen police actions targeted against respected news reporters licencEd to report from the BLM protests, including brutal actions against British reporters. inhave just listened to the following audio from the Guardian, it makes you think... www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/jul/01/when-will-boris-johnson-release-the-russia-report-podcast?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other |
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Post by beef on Jul 3, 2020 20:05:48 GMT
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Post by Zenrider on Jul 4, 2020 6:05:14 GMT
Yes, well, over hear we've pretty much gotten used to knowing something crazy was coming in any news report that starts with"Florida man..." It would figure some of the women are just as stupid. At least, now you know why some states are having more cases, when they should be having less at this point. I saw a lot of license plates from the spiking states heading into Chicago this week. Sadly the only people they can likely enforce a quarantine are people arriving through the airports and that will be hard. Not sure if they are fleeing their states that are going back into restrictions mode as we are slowly opening up, or if they are trying to make it spike here again. Perhaps a bit of both. Especially, as some states, who had no contingency plans, are finding their ICUs running out of room. It's just insane the amount of selfishness happening right now. Of course, with the holiday weekend, we are likely to see a rise in cases without people bringing it with them from other states. Much as I understand having to live while you're alive, but you should do that as much as possible, so that when something like this comes up you can sit back for a bit, relax and be responsible. If people keep taking that attitude they may find their life a bit shorter than it had to be. Worse, they may make someone else's life shorter than it had to be. |
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Post by Zenrider on Jul 4, 2020 6:06:05 GMT
An additional problem we are having here, like we need anymore, is people have gone fireworks crazy. Sure, they are illegal in most states, but people just go to the states they are legal to buy them. It's loosely if ever enforced in the states that it's illegal. People used to wait until the fourth of July and New Years to set some off. I'm thinking with people that are still self isolating and avoiding having large gatherings, they are using them for birthdays, graduations, and stuff to make up for not having big parties. Unfortunately, people don't give much thought to what they are doing and the conditions around them, so some places have already had fires, especially in the western dry states. Of course, the traitors in the White House far exceed that issue. It's apparent the entire Republican Party has sold out. OK anyone who has been paying attention has known that for a very, very long time, decades even, but now are completely controlled by Putin. Seriously, Putin paying the Taliban a bounty for every American Soldier killed and the proof in money transfers. A real President would be outraged and declaring sanctions if not war. Instead we have more of the distraction clown act. I was disgusted to hear in the news that the queen had a long phone conversation with Trump on Monday. She should have nothing to do with him and demand an apology for his actions to Britain after he was given a state visit. The bounty was for UK troops as well as American and trump’s relationship with Putin meant this report was either deliberately ignored by the CiC or his aides knew that in presenting it to trump would Jeopardise their careers. Trumps rhetoric against the media has seen police actions targeted against respected news reporters licencEd to report from the BLM protests, including brutal actions against British reporters. inhave just listened to the following audio from the Guardian, it makes you think... www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/jul/01/when-will-boris-johnson-release-the-russia-report-podcast?CMP=Share_iOSApp_OtherI'm thinking, avoid politicians with crazy haircuts. |
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Post by mikey on Jul 21, 2020 14:47:38 GMT
So, we now have a uk security report that states the Russians had the opportunity to interfere in the Scottish Referendum, the Brexit Referendum and UK elections, but there was not (and will not be) Any investigation into whether there was aNy interference or if there was, how much it may have influenced the outcome.
In short, Putin is laughing, Brexiteers got what they wanted and we have to live with the consequences.
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Post by beef on Jul 21, 2020 18:50:47 GMT
So, we now have a uk security report that states the Russians had the opportunity to interfere in the Scottish Referendum, the Brexit Referendum and UK elections, but there was not (and will not be) Any investigation into whether there was aNy interference or if there was, how much it may have influenced the outcome. In short, Putin is laughing, Brexiteers got what they wanted and we have to live with the consequences. ...and just as Parliament takes a 2 month holiday... how convenient... |
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Post by Zenrider on Jul 24, 2020 17:35:33 GMT
Yup, we are living the same BS. The difference being your clown can behave relatively normal when absolutely needed. Our clown doesn't know how to behave any other way.
Now I'm going to be out lots of money proving my house is not in a flood zone. A house that was built in 1954 and I have lived in for the past 14 years is now suddenly in a flood zone. Better yet, based on a aerial survey that is not to be used in the manor FEMA is using it. Grrr. Could cost me at minimum a $1,000 to fight, which is worth it as a house requiring flood insurance to get a mortgage lowers the value of said house. Grrr.
Haven't had a chance to talk to my neighbor who is also affected according to this survey. Pretty sure his house if paid off, so he may not know about this yet.
I pretty much figure this is because of all the flooding elsewhere, FEMA is looking to make their money back on houses that will never flood to keep giving money to millionaires that keep insisting on rebuilding seaside homes that should not be covered by any insurance. Ugh.
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It is very well worth the time to watch, if you haven't already.
It is very well worth the time to watch, if you haven't already.
