Politics & Stuff

[Fulham Broadway 16,838]

MPs in Uganda have passed a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which would make homosexual acts punishable by death.

All but two of the 389 legislators voted late on Tuesday for the anti-homosexuality bill, which introduces capital and life imprisonment sentences for gay sex and “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”. 😲

[Fulham Broadway 16,838]

 

[cosmicway 1,323]

On 22/03/2023 at 03:56, Fulham Broadway said:

MPs in Uganda have passed a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which would make homosexual acts punishable by death.

All but two of the 389 legislators voted late on Tuesday for the anti-homosexuality bill, which introduces capital and life imprisonment sentences for gay sex and “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”. 😲

The C of E is also in trouble over this.
We should oppose discrimination against LBGTQ because when we don't the Soviet spies will try to blackmail our spies.
But all this gay atmosphere is none other than the old "Charilaos prem" 21st century style.
Charilaos Florakis was the leader of the Greek communist party.
Everytime we had elections the conservative New Democracy had to dish out some confetti money, so the reds would not boost the socialist party vote.
We don't say it any longer, but it has been replaced by the "brotherhood of the knights".

Edited March 23, 2023 by cosmicway

[Fulham Broadway 16,838]

130 mass shootings in the US since January. 10 000 people shot to death so far this year.

Is the NRA right ? 'guns dont kill people, people kill people'

Maybe the gun has something to do with it, just a hunch.

[Fulham Broadway 16,838]

Trump - apparently there's 30 counts in the indictment and the hush money to plastic tits, the thing might stretch to 2 counts. They're going to indict him on every criminal thing he's ever done in NY including the indictments Cy Vance decided not to file last year.

Melania probably can't wait to have that huge carcass writhing on top of her, tiny hands grasping...

 

[Vesper 28,796]

DONALD TRUMP INDICTED ON 34 COUNTS, IMMEDIATELY LOSES HIS MIND

 

[Vesper 28,796]

[Vesper 28,796]

Goodwin’s Law: How Britain’s Political 'Elite' Seek to Distract From Their Own Power

The longer a debate continues, the greater the likelihood is that the side with actual power will accuse the side with none, of being part of the 'elite'

https://adambienkov.substack.com/p/goodwins-law-how-britains-political

There’s an old adage from the early days of the internet which suggests that the longer an online discussion continues, the greater the probability that somebody will mention the Nazis.

This truism, known as ‘Godwin’s Law’ after the American lawyer who first coined it, now has a far more modern equivalent in British politics.

This updated version, which I will call ‘Goodwin’s Law’ after the one-time academic, turned anti-woke warrior, Professor Matthew Goodwin, states that the longer an online debate continues, the greater the possibility that the side with actual power will accuse the side with none, of being part of the ‘elite’.

No-one has more perfectly demonstrated this than Goodwin himself, who this week toured the nation’s television studios in order to promote his new book about what he calls the “new elite” now governing British life.

If you’ve somehow missed Goodwin’s thesis, you might assume that the “governing class” he refers to is the actual Government that has been in charge of the UK for the past 13 years, as well as its extensive network of financial and media supporters. 

You might even assume that it includes organisations like the Dubai-based investment firm Legatum, whose think tank arm currently employs Goodwin himself.

However, you would be wrong.

For Goodwin, the actual people running the show are the “radical woke middle-class liberals” which make up Britain’s “new elite.”

As he explains in his promotional piece for The Sun, these include:

“The increasingly political celebrity class, like Carol Vorderman and Gary Lineker, the legal activists who argue their profession should no longer be impartial, or prominent left-leaning journalists, like Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and others, who similarly shape the national conversation around a particular set of minority values. Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell. Almost any Radio 4 presenter.”

 

So while you might have assumed that Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson, Theresa May and David Cameron have been in charge of the country for the past decade, it has in fact been under the all-seeing Machiavellian control of a shadowy elite, headed by the former presenter of Countdown.

Of course it’s easy to mock such nonsense, which is exactly why I have, but there is actually a serious point here.

In recent years there has been a co-ordinated attempt by people in powerful positions, to accuse anyone who dares to question that power, of being part of an ‘elite’ that is wildly out of touch with the actual public. This strategy was first trialed during the Brexit referendum, when Boris Johnson and his media supporters waged a campaign against so-called ‘elite’ Remainers.

At the time this was a hugely successful strategy, in large part because it had at least a grain of truth to it. The Remain campaign at the time was led by the Prime Minister, his government, the opposition, most business people and trade unions. Attempts to paint these people as the ‘elite’ were therefore not difficult, even if those leading the Leave campaign were equally as much of a part of that elite as those who opposed it.

However, since Cameron was replaced, and since Brexit was actually enacted, Johnson and his successors have continued to use these tactics, despite the fact that they are now very much in power and despite the fact that both of the major political parties back the status quo on Brexit.

Of course pursuing an anti-establishment message when you are the actual establishment inevitably poses some difficulties, as Johnson eventually found out at the end of his premiership.

This is especially the case when the people most keen on attacking the ‘elite’ are so obviously part of that elite themselves. Whether it’s Eton-educated politicians like Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg, or their social equivalents running newspapers like the Daily Mail and The Sun, attempts by the actual elite to distance themselves from their own power and status have become increasingly less convincing.

For these people, Goodwin’s theory obviously has a great deal of appeal.

However, trying to construct an actual academic basis for such a flimsy theory is difficult, as Professor Goodwin’s rather awkward attempts this week clearly demonstrate.

As a result some shortcuts are inevitable. For Goodwin, who first made a name for himself through his attempts to paint Brexit as some sort of grassroots popular revolt, rather than one backed by some of the most powerful people in the country (including Goodwin’s own current employers) the need for academic rigour appears to have been gradually sacrificed.

So while he now claims that Gary Lineker and other members of this supposed “new elite” are wildly out of touch with the public on issues like immigration, he ignores almost all of the evidence showing that public opinion is actually far more nuanced than his caricature suggests.

 

An exchange between Matthew Goodwin and Jonn Elledge

Meanwhile his own ‘People polling’ operation, which is conducted for the benefit of the similarly Legatum-funded GB News channel, is used to add intellectual and academic heft to what, is in reality, a fairly transparent attempt to deflect blame from those people with power, to those people without. 

So whether it’s desperate refugees on small boats, or the handful of celebrities who dare to use their platforms to support them, Goodwin’s ‘new elite’ bears little resemblance to the actual people who have been in charge of the country for the past 13 years.

For this reason, Goodwin’s work is already receiving a lot of attention from those who most stand to benefit from his theory. In one review in the Times, which describes his book as “forceful”, the former journalist turned Conservative think-tanker Sebastian Payne writes that “the fundamental thrust of Goodwin’s argument is right,” even if he does admit to finding some flaws in his arguments.

Such flaws are unlikely to receive much attention, however. As long as there are think tanks and media organisations with pockets deep enough to fund and promote the idea that the actual people with power in the country do not have enough of it, then Goodwin and people like him are likely to remain gainfully employed.

Yet for anyone without such dishonest motivations, Goodwin’s arguments should be treated with the disdain they really deserve.

Edited April 2, 2023 by Vesper

[Fulham Broadway 16,838]

Putin didnt want Ukraine joining NATO and being on Russias border. Spectacularly backfires as Finland joins NATO today

[Fernando 6,455]

On 28/03/2023 at 13:23, Fulham Broadway said:

130 mass shootings in the US since January. 10 000 people shot to death so far this year.

Is the NRA right ? 'guns dont kill people, people kill people'

Maybe the gun has something to do with it, just a hunch.

The problem is that guns will come from Russia or something like that. 
It won't change anything. 

Example NYC has the strictest gun law and people have a lot here. 

That being said if you notice the crimes, is everyone doing it. 

If it was racist you could say, but it's everyone, black, white, latino and trans. 

So it's the people. And not to say that seems to happen here. Don't hear about this happening in China or Russia or something like that. 

So again there's something wrong with out people. 

[Fulham Broadway 16,838]

3 hours ago, Fernando said:

The problem is that guns will come from Russia or something like that. 
It won't change anything. 

Example NYC has the strictest gun law and people have a lot here. 

That being said if you notice the crimes, is everyone doing it. 

If it was racist you could say, but it's everyone, black, white, latino and trans. 

So it's the people. And not to say that seems to happen here. Don't hear about this happening in China or Russia or something like that. 

So again there's something wrong with out people. 

It's a real tragedy -we know the answer it's anti-gun legislation, but the gun lobby, and peoples long held belief in the 'right to bear arms' makes it almost impossible within the realms of Republicanism/Democratic bipartisanship. Even the fact that 300 children have been killed by guns this year is swept under the carpet. I remember one of my American University lecturers saying the only way it would change if some Senators, Presidents children and families were massacred because so many of them are in the pockets of the NRA. It's heartbreaking knowing that innocent civilians, children, will be slaughtered in the coming months, and the same old tropes will be trotted out by the corporate media.

[Fernando 6,455]

1 hour ago, Fulham Broadway said:

It's a real tragedy -we know the answer it's anti-gun legislation, but the gun lobby, and peoples long held belief in the 'right to bear arms' makes it almost impossible within the realms of Republicanism/Democratic bipartisanship. Even the fact that 300 children have been killed by guns this year is swept under the carpet. I remember one of my American University lecturers saying the only way it would change if some Senators, Presidents children and families were massacred because so many of them are in the pockets of the NRA. It's heartbreaking knowing that innocent civilians, children, will be slaughtered in the coming months, and the same old tropes will be trotted out by the corporate media.

Well I hope they do ban guns for your argument. 

But watch it won't change anything. It will come to the US just like drugs. You can't get rid of it unless you ban worldwide, and we know that is never going to happen. 

That being said it will help a bit, as it will stop it from places in the US to get it for easy. But that's about it. 

Edited April 3, 2023 by Fernando

[Fulham Broadway 16,838]

11 minutes ago, Fernando said:

Well I hope they do ban guns for your argument. 

But watch it won't change anything.

I think it would dramatically reduce the deaths and maiming. You are right there would still be illegal guns, but making it an offence to have one would overnight reduce the killing. But sadly we know it will not happen, whilst there are more guns than people in the US.

[cosmicway 1,323]

Are you a language defender ?
In Italy prime minister ms Meloni is soon to enact a new law prohibiting the English language:

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/01/europe/italian-government-penalize-english-words-intl/index.html

That reminds of Cato the censor, but in Greece George Papadopoulos did a similar trick back in 1967: The words <<hotel>> and <<institut>> were forbidden. Thus <<institut Francais>> had to change its name and <<Pasteur institute>> did likewise.

I am in two minds.
Recently a friend posted in facebook a list of about 30 Greek words and the equivalent imported words we normaly tend to use, thus insulting the Greek language as he maintained.
One example is the lift. We don't say lift, we say "ascensceur" in this case -the French word- but the Greek word is "anelkystir" or "anelkystiras" rather.
I did this: Counted the vowel sounds in the foreign words and the vowel sounds in the Greek words. The count was foreign = 80, Greek = 120.
So I said to him "here is your explanation - with your words we reach Kalamata before we utter a sentence, with the other ones it's easier".
Because he is a mathematician he accepted the explanation as valid.

The English language enthusiasts, in Trump country mostly, expresss similar sentiments as those of ms Meloni in Italy, but I hesitate.
Speaking of Trump country what about my aunt from Chicago ? She used to speak half and half. Woud they send the carabinieri after her ?
What is your opinion ?

 

[robsblubot 3,504]

On 03/04/2023 at 11:11, Fulham Broadway said:

I think it would dramatically reduce the deaths and maiming. You are right there would still be illegal guns, but making it an offence to have one would overnight reduce the killing. But sadly we know it will not happen, whilst there are more guns than people in the US.

Forget guns... start "small" by banning assault weapons first. 😉

The arguments for assault weapon possession being allowed in the US are the the most ridiculous things you will hear.
But then again, if even the Uvalde massacre wasn't enough to move the needle... 🤷‍♂️

[cosmicway 1,323]

HOW METACOMMUNISM WILL DESTROY THE WORLD

I don't know which way you vote, Trump, Boris, Keir, Orban, Julio Iglesias but here is a simple example of how meracommunism will destroy the world:
You can't refute this if you are so inclined.

In my town there are three big carpet galleries. One of them belongs to an old schoolmate of mine but that's beside the point.
They produce quality stuff.
At the same time there are the gypsy people who sell some home made carpets in the flea markets uptown.
Those carpets are of poor quality as you might expect, yet they may fit some purposes and also some poor home owners would buy those rather than the expensive ones.
What happens ?
The two or three big naturally want to destroy the gypsy vendors: What is this ? they should go back to stealing cars.
So they push for draconian tax laws to be enacted to drive the gypsy markets out of business.

At the same time we have the woke-marxist leninist opposition parties in parliament.
What about those ?
Well, on paper they hate both. The galleries should become extinct, the open air vendors should also become extinct, so the glorious party controls the economy
and turns all the people into mindless robots. Because that's what communism is supposed to be doing.
In reality the wokies-marxists are looking at us from their luxury residences in Viareggio, Lake Constance but it does n't matter.

So the unholy alliance was born and sooner or later they get all of us.
It's "first they came for the gypsies".
 

Edited April 5, 2023 by cosmicway

[manpe 10,861]

On 03/04/2023 at 19:56, Fernando said:

Well I hope they do ban guns for your argument. 

But watch it won't change anything. It will come to the US just like drugs. You can't get rid of it unless you ban worldwide, and we know that is never going to happen. 

That being said it will help a bit, as it will stop it from places in the US to get it for easy. But that's about it. 

Tell me this: is it easier and quicker to kill 20 people with a knife or an AR rifle that you can currently purchase legally? Yes, people kill people, but it's what those people use for killing that determines how many they kill. You don't really hear about mass stabbings for some reason, only mass shootings. 🤔 I wonder why...

Edited April 5, 2023 by manpe

[YorkshireBlue 3,122]

1 hour ago, manpe said:

Tell me this: is it easier and quicker to kill 20 people with a knife or an AR rifle that you can currently purchase legally? Yes, people kill people, but it's what those people use for killing that determines how many they kill. You don't really hear about mass stabbings for some reason, only mass shootings. 🤔 I wonder why...

If you really want to achieve "mass killings" you would use chemicals, guns and knifes are chosen for a specific task, AR are used to kill alot of people quickly and a range that's considered safe for the shooter and isn't very personal, as most mass killing entry wounds are in the back, a rifle compared to a knife for obvious reason doesn't allow most people to run away, were as knife attacks are for close quarters suprise attackers, stabbing some one is alot more personal than shooting some one, therefore knife attacks are normally used for a specific target. The real problem is people, knifes and guns are harmless without a complete idiot holding it.

Edited April 5, 2023 by YorkshireBlue