Politics & Stuff

[YorkshireBlue 3,122]

32 minutes ago, MoroccanBlue said:

 

 

I don't disagree with either of you (considering we are talking about 3-5% of the world population).

Just wondering what the reactions will be for example when an 18 year old boy is wrestling against an 18 year old boy who's gone under hormone therapy and has breasts. 

Exactly the same as what happens when an 18 year old boy who just identifys as a girl without surgery or hormone Therapy wrestling a 18 year old girl.

[Vesper 28,796]

Kevin McCarthy becomes the first Speaker of the US House of Representatives to ever to be ousted from the job in American history

https://apnews.com/article/mccarthy-gaetz-speaker-motion-to-vacate-congress-327e294a39f8de079ef5e4abfb1fa555

[Vesper 28,796]

2nd in Line to the Presidency (after the VP), and the 2nd most powerful position in the US government

[Vesper 28,796]

the US is going off the rails

[Vesper 28,796]

Trump’s Fraud Trial Starts With Attacks on Attorney General and Judge

Donald J. Trump appeared in court as lawyers for New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, painted him as a fraudster. His lawyers said she was out to get the former president.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/nyregion/trump-fraud-trial-letitia-james.html

 

Judge issues gag order after Trump’s comments on court clerk in civil trial

The second day of Trump’s trial got off to another combative start after Trump branded the case a ‘fraud’ and ‘scam’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/03/trump-new-york-fraud-trial-update

[Vesper 28,796]

Sunak sparks Tory civil war with scrapping of HS2 Manchester leg

Tory leader’s attempt to portray himself as change candidate at party conference overshadowed by fierce criticism of U-turn

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/oct/04/sunak-sparks-tory-civil-war-with-scrapping-of-hs2-manchester-leg

Rishi Sunak unleashed a Tory civil war on Wednesday by announcing the scrapping of the northern leg of HS2 as the former prime minister David Cameron said the decision showed the country was heading in the wrong direction.

After days of frenzied speculation over the future of the flagship levelling-up project, Sunak confirmed he was axing the Birmingham to Manchester line and would use the £36bn of savings to fund a number of other transport schemes, described as “Network North”.

Cameron led a torrent of criticism of the announcement, which it emerged was made without consulting the cabinet, parliament, local councils or Network Rail, saying it passed up a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

“It will help to fuel the views of those who argue that we can no longer think or act for the long-term as a country; that we are heading in the wrong direction,” he warned.

Cameron said the announcement threw away “15 years of cross-party consensus, sustained over six administrations, and would make it much harder to build consensus for any future long-term projects”.

However, Sunak told Tory activists in Manchester that he was focused on the long term as he presented himself – the fifth Tory prime minister in 13 unbroken years of the party’s rule – as the change candidate at the next election.

“At the next election the choice that people face is bigger than party politics,” he said.

“Do we want a government committed to making long-term decisions, prepared to be radical in the face of challenges and to take on vested interests, or do we want to stand still and quietly accept more of the same?

“You either think this country needs to change, or you don’t. And if you do, you should stand with me and every person in this hall, you should stand with the Conservatives.”

He directly challenged critics of his HS2 plans including former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Theresa May, as well as the West Midlands mayor, Andy Street, who pulled back from the brink of quitting the Tory party.

“I say to those who backed the project in the first place, the facts have changed. The right thing to do when the facts change is to have the courage to change direction,” he said.

Cameron was joined by Johnson, who replied to his post on X, formerly known as Twitter, criticising the announcement simply with: “I agree.”

Sunak was accused of the “biggest and most damaging U-turn in the history of UK infrastructure” by the rail industry despite a promise to divert funds into transport schemes in the Midlands and north, including some already under way, as well as projects previously paused or cancelled by the government.

Sunak had insisted all week that no final decision had been made on scrapping the Manchester leg. However, he later posted a video online – outlining why he had made the decision – that had been recorded in No 10 at least three days before the conference.

In an hour-long speech that was introduced by Akshata Murty – the first political spouse to do so since Sarah Brown introduced Gordon in 2009, the year before he lost power – Sunak announced just two policies that were entirely new.

One was a major change to secondary school qualifications bringing together A-levels and T-levels to create a new “Advanced British Standard”, which will involve students covering more subjects. However, it will take more than a decade to introduce.

The bonus for new teachers in key subjects such as science and maths, where there is a recruitment and retention crisis, will be doubled to up to £30,000 over the first five years of their career to encourage them to stay on. No 10 could not say where the £600m to pay for it would come from.

Sunak also confirmed a plan, first revealed by the Guardian, to in effect phase out smoking by raising the legal age to buy cigarettes by one year every year, meaning a 14-year-old today will never legally be able to buy them. He pledged to restrict the availability of vapes to children.

Downing Street could not say when a free vote on the crackdown on buying cigarettes would be held, but the prime minister’s press secretary said: “Rishi Sunak is a man in a hurry.” Liz Truss has said she would vote against the plans, in a sign of a further Tory split.

Sunak’s speech was peppered with references to the future. However, Sunak glossed over the Tories’ 13 years in power and Truss’s disastrous 49-day premiership in particular. “I came into office in difficult circumstances, and I don’t want to waste time debating the past because what matters is the future,” he said.

Despite speculation that Sunak could offer tax cuts before the election, as Tory MPs have repeatedly urged him to do, he refused to do so in his speech. “I know you want tax cuts, I want them too – and we will deliver them,” he said. “But the best tax cut we can give people right now is to halve inflation and ease the cost of living.”

The speech otherwise stuck to largely familiar Conservative themes such as immigration, crime, the unions and the benefits system, in addition to a section on culture wars that included a strong attack on trans rights.

“We shouldn’t be bullied into thinking people can be any sex they want to be. A man is a man and a woman is a woman and that’s just common sense,” he said.

Sunak told the Tory right, who have been urging withdrawal from the European convention on human rights, that while he was “confident” his hardline Rwanda policy would not breach international law, he would do “whatever is necessary” to stop Channel crossings.

The European Political Community meets in Spain on Thursday, where Sunak will co-chair an event with Italy’s hardline leader, Giorgia Meloni, on illegal migration. The two prime ministers are expected to call for more coordinated action.

Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt gave Sunak’s warm-up speech, framing the battle against Labour as a return to the 1980s.

She paid tribute to Tory former cabinet minister Norman Tebbit and described Labour as “the sons and daughters of [Arthur] Scargill”, adding: “They want to return us to the 1980s. We are not for returning.”

She concluded by channelling US senator John McCain’s 2008 Republican presidential nomination acceptance speech to “stand up, stand up, stand up and fight”. McCain later lost the US election to Barack Obama.

[Vesper 28,796]

the room next door - Penny Mordaunt

 

Michael Spicer does his usual incomparable turn as a backroom spin doctor responding via radio link to a politician's burblings, this time based on Mordaunt's gobsmacking Tory Party Conference speech. Spicer's input is satirical, Mordaunt was apparently deadly serious.

[Vesper 28,796]

Israel FAFO'd

[Gundalf 804]

Gaza to be turned into dust soon. 

[lucio 5,418]

i hate both, desert bandits 

[lucio 5,418]

 

disgusting rapists, literal sub human trash, can only hope these individuals are slaughtered by missiles 

[Gundalf 804]

9 minutes ago, lucio said:

 

disgusting rapists, literal sub human trash, can only hope these individuals are slaughtered by missiles 

Israel is guilty as well, but I have to say as a white European: Israel wouldnt want to kill me, radical islamists would. So my stance is clear: wipe out those islamists, let not one of them get away alive. 

Edited October 7, 2023 by Gundalf

[lucio 5,418]

2 minutes ago, Gundalf said:

Israel is guilty as well, but I have to say as a white European: Israel wouldnt want to kill me, radical islamists would. So my stance is clear: wipe out those islamists, let not one of them get away alive. 

because of israel and "gods chosen people", your fellow white men  get sent to die destabilising israels neighbouring countries in the middle east. as a result your country gets  flooded by islamist men who rape and kill european women and kids

[Gundalf 804]

Not only Israel, think about Russia and their influence in destabilizing Afghanistan in the 80s for example. Iran is trying to cause havoc as well, so is Turkey. Funny thing is that all these very rich arab countries like Saudi, Qatar, Bahrain, Dubai etc wont take any refugees at all lol. 

[Vesper 28,796]

1 hour ago, Gundalf said:

Not only Israel, think about Russia and their influence in destabilizing Afghanistan in the 80s for example. Iran is trying to cause havoc as well, so is Turkey. Funny thing is that all these very rich arab countries like Saudi, Qatar, Bahrain, Dubai etc wont take any refugees at all lol. 

yes, so many of the rich Arab states are super hypocrites when it comes to the Palestinians

they all stood by multiple times and let Syria kill them, for instance

Palestinians and the Assad regime: for history and generations to know

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20140708-palestinians-and-the-assad-regime-for-history-and-generations-to-know/

I am surprised to see any Arabs supporting the Assad regime in Syria, but when this support comes from Palestinians, whether factions, officials or intellectuals, the surprise turns to shock because this regime has done everything possible to prevent the existence of a Palestinian entity; to stop a war of liberation; and to block an agreement process that is based on Arab strengths.

In this context, the regime has not hesitated to kill, or to make allies with powers that are friends of Israel or to practice conspire against the Palestinian liberation movement in the Arab world. Nor has it hesitated to break up institutions of the PLO, so the movement would be split into two, one for the regime and one for Palestine; and so that the General Union of Writers and Journalists would become two, one for the regime and another for Palestine; and the same goes for the unions representing farmers, engineers, doctors and all other workers, which together represent quality grassroots support for the PLO. No Palestinian activist, whether a political, military or union leader, has been able to escape the Syrian prison system while working under the Syrian legal system.

This regime not only arrested Palestinians in the country but also made arrest lists for those expected to arrive at Damascus Airport. In one incident, the late Faisal Hussaini was going to Moscow via Damascus and was surprised to find out that he had to spend a night in transit there. The local office of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) sent their delegate to the airport to secure his accommodation for the night; to the delegate’s surprise he found that there was an arrest warrant for Hussaini should he ever step foot in Syria. He had to call the PFLP’s George Habash, who telephoned the then President Hafez Al-Assad to ask him to allow Hussaini to leave on any flight.

Prisons, atrocities and facts

Those who know about recent history do not need to be reminded of the relationship between the Syrian regime and the Palestinian national movement. The reason that some in the latter oppose the Syrian revolution against the regime – which is unparalleled in tyranny and corruption – is the false assumption that there are others who are worse than the regime; this is not true, despite all the conspiracies planted on YouTube and the exaggeration about the extremists within the opposition. All of the latter, no matter what they do together, will not be able to reproduce the hell of the regime’s Tadmor Prison for over thirty years. Even the craziest of the extremists will not be able to torture a human being every day for twenty years just for being a Baathist and follower of the party in Baghdad; or for being a young Muslim Brotherhood member; or a communist belonging to the Riad Al-Turk group; or a Christian of the “Arab Socialist Democratic Union” headed by Hassan Abdel Azim; or any of the others who represent all of the political spectrum in Syria.

On what basis does Bashar Al-Assad’s regime deserve and get praise from Palestinians? The answer may be overly naïve and tested by events: it is, we are told, to protect Palestinians in Syria. This is flawed reasoning; exempting Palestinians from being killed like their Syrian brothers is not a solution for the situation in Palestine. In any case, look at what has happened to the Palestinians in Yarmouk refugee camp and in the regime’s prisons where they were killed. Despite the huge tragedy of the Palestinians, some attributed the atrocities, or their causes, to the existence of armed opposition in the camp, even when it was clear that Assad’s army was behind them. Discussions with Palestinians displaced from Yarmouk or any other refugee camp reveal the truth, while those who are sympathetic with the regime back its version of events even though they know that it lies about everything.

Hafez Al-Assad and targeting Arafat

It would be nice for those looking at Yasser Arafat’s long journey to meet witnesses to events; many of them are still alive. In this context, it is important to take a look at two specific experiences. The first is Arafat’s experience with armed revolution and the second with the peace process, and why and how the Israelis targeted the man who made a balanced agreement a strategic goal. It was notable that such an agreement would, at best as far as the Palestinians are concerned, consolidate the Zionist entity built on falsehood and moral standards that call for bloodshed and the theft of Palestinian rights.

Detailed research will find that the Assad regime’s classification of Yasser Arafat is a carbon copy of Israel’s. Al-Assad senior, until the day he died, used to see Yasser Arafat as “an obstacle that had to be removed”; that is how the Israeli occupiers saw him. Hafez Al-Assad wanted to keep Palestinian resistance as a card in his pocket supporting his tactical plans, ambitions and role internally and externally.

Thus the principle of the Palestinian trump card emerged in Syria. In a climate of deceit between military ranks and branches, Yasser Arafat was arrested for the first time on charges of “preparing for acts of sabotage”, while he was doing so with official approval. In that context, it was necessary for Al-Assad to inform Arafat, who reached an understanding with a senior officer, that he, and not the latter, was the military decision-maker and so the “Fatah” card had to be in his pocket.

In return, Arafat stuck to his principle that the Palestinians must keep their weapons, and keep the decision to arm or disarm one for Palestinians alone, independent of all Arab regimes. He wanted to keep the conflict entirely separate from the internal conflicts of each Arab country.

Arab archives may be closed but researchers need to study the facts about the attempts to assassinate Yasser Arafat. Syria tried many times to make the man “disappear”; according to some sources the first attempt was in 1966.

The regime’s insistence on controlling Palestinian decision-making created a feud with Arafat. It did not matter that he was the leader of a liberation movement and had an important regional role; nor did his steadfastness help him. On the contrary, Arafat’s steadfast stand in Beirut in 1982 caused the Syrian regime to hate him even more.

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon revealed to Hafez Al-Assad not only Syria’s inability to rescue the Palestinian revolution but also to rescue and feed its troops in the neighbouring country. Arafat was not making any political point when he provided canned food, ammunition and hot bread to the Syrian army in Beirut under Israel’s bombardment.

In the Palestinian National Council held in Algeria in February 1983, Hafez Al-Assad tried, through his proxies, to split the PLO and end Arafat politically. In those days, the level of mistrust was stronger but it was not used for long. The conference discussed the so-called “Reagan project for peace” and Palestinians had agreed to reject it while leaving Arafat with room to manoeuvre.

The Syrian regime understood that this was the beginning of a partnership between Arafat and the late King Hussein of Jordan; Syria thought that it would not get what it aspired to if Jordan and Palestine were close. Soon enough, an underground rebel movement emerged from Syrian military intelligence armed with Syrian weapons. Many statements were made and many people thought that Fatah was finished and that Arafat was gone forever. Camps were bombed and Palestinian blood was shed. Two years later Palestinians were victims of the bloody attack by Lebanon’s Amal movement against refugee camps in Beirut (the “Camp War”), reminding the Palestinians of the disaster of Tel Alza’atar in 1976 when, at the peak of the Lebanese civil war, Hafez Al-Assad’s army had a role in committing massacres in the refugee camp.

Arafat surprised Al-Assad when he went to Syria itself, by agreement, in order to heal the wounds. At that time, he had arranged relations with Rifaat Al-Assad, Hafez’s brother, who was at the peak of his power, so he leaned on him throughout the visit. When Arafat was to go to Tripoli in Lebanon, in June 1983, nobody knew for certain if he had had joined the small convoy of vehicles leaving Damascus. The convoy was ambushed; rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire rained down onto Arafat’s car, but he wasn’t inside. He showed up suddenly at the Conference of Arab Writers in Damascus to give a powerful speech which, whenever it was repeated, sounded as if it was being heard for the first time.

Nothing was left for Hafez Al-Assad at that point except for expulsion in order to deal with the Arafat phenomenon. A flight to Tunisia was delayed so that Arafat could be put on board. According to British journalist Alan Hart in his biography of Arafat, it was George Habash, “the wise man”, who bade him farewell at the airport. The two men hugged and Habash whispered in Arafat’s ear: “Dear lord, if you, Abu Ammar, are leaving Sham in this way, I don’t know how I will leave when my turn comes, perhaps in a coffin!”

Arafat the magician played his next trick and suddenly appeared in Tripoli, on the day of Eid, as if his move was among the traditions of that city and its residents. He seemed composed and there were many expectations of him. Al-Assad biographer Patrick Seale insisted that Arafat went into a trap by himself when he was besieged. People argued about how many days were left for Arafat to stay alive; Seale only gave him hours. Al-Assad estimated it at eight days: four for his people in the camps and four for Yasser Arafat and those with him.

The expectations were wrong; the Palestinian leader and his colleague Abu Jihad spent three months defending the revolution, the camps and the people of Tripoli. He eventually left in December 1984 by sea, again by agreement.

Yasser Arafat did not give up on his attempts to establish a normal, non-subordinate relationship with Hafez Al-Assad, but the latter declared his open enmity, with no explanation or excuses. Following the Tripoli incident, one of the ugliest campaigns in Arab history began, which targeted Fatah members and cadres and other Palestinians in Syria. Considering that Syria witnessed the beginnings of the movement, and it was the place where Fatah blended with its social roots in Palestinian camps, the number of detainees was huge and many were subject to brutal torture in the regime’s prisons, along with all national opposition groups, including former Baathists, leftists, communists, Nasserists and Islamists.

It happens in Lebanon

There was no law, no human rights centres and no internet blogs to rein-in those monsters or expose them. Researchers in Palestinian social history will have the opportunity to listen to hundreds of stories about what Palestinian families were subjected to. I do not exaggerate when I say that some of the prisoners came out barely resembling human beings and about to die; they were released on purpose so that they’d be a lesson to others. Some were not even able to find their wives and children, especially those with small families who had no extended family groups in the camps’ social environment; they had arrived there for the purpose of the struggle and their families had been sent to other, chilling, fates In some cases, girls, after being subjected to poverty and sexual abuse from men within the Syrian regime, would find themselves on the wrong path; this would destroy the head of the family, if he had actually survived. At that time, receiving a salary from Fatah was a crime for which people could be sent to prison, where they would be forgotten.

At the same time, the Lebanese regime, which was collaborating with the regime in Damascus, was suffocating Palestinians in the refugee camps in Lebanon; they were prevented from working in around eighty trades and professions, and those who joined the Palestinian national movement were persecuted. At the same time, reconciliation was ongoing at a high level with war collaborators and criminals, killers and drug dealers from Christian militias allied with Israel, such as Elie Hobeika and others, as well as many officers who dealt in drugs. It was easy for the Syrian regime to understand the “independence” of the spies, and to forgive traitors and to open the doors welcoming them to Damascus. At the same time, it was impossible to reconcile with Yasser Arafat for one reason; his insistence that Palestinians maintain control over their national decision-making. Arafat was ready to open up to his nation and its leaders but only as far as receiving advice.

In January 1994, Arafat took the chance to meet with Hafez Al-Assad at the funeral of his eldest son, Basel. Arafat could not change anything about Al-Assad’s position. Two years later, he went to give his condolences to Al-Assad on the death of his mother, but his position stayed the same, even during the full confrontation with the Israeli occupation; the position of the Syrian regime did not change. On the contrary, it was more eager to attack Arafat. The height of this political assassination came when the Syrian regime blocked his attempt to address the Arab Summit in Beirut via a video link, while he was under siege. Arafat was, it seemed, now “irrelevant”.

Yasser Arafat was finally martyred and the “obstacle”, which many believe the Israelis took the liberty to liquidate, was removed. The Assad regime had contributed to weakening Arafat politically, during the siege of Ramallah, until it became rare for the man’s phone to ring. A month after his death, Hafez Al-Assad’s heir, Bashar, received President Mahmoud Abbas in the same place where Arafat had received a cold shoulder from the new president when he attended the funeral. Arafat was not given the chance to meet with Bashar alone, unlike other presidents who went to give their condolences. Moreover, Bashar received Abbas with a smile, perhaps thinking that Palestinian leaders turn against themselves, so the new ones judge the old ones and condemn them. This is what I have tried, and still try, to refute. Which is why the current Assad regime should not be praised.

[MoroccanBlue 5,297]

On 07/10/2023 at 17:53, lucio said:

because of israel and "gods chosen people", your fellow white men  get sent to die destabilising israels neighbouring countries in the middle east. as a result your country gets  flooded by islamist men who rape and kill european women and kids

So the IDF don't rape and murder innocent people? There is no "good guy" here. Both the IDF and Hamas are scum of the earth and are finding every excuse to perform their final solution.

What can be said however, is that for decades Palestine has been systematically eradicated even if Hamas existed or not. 

[cosmicway 1,323]

After the six day war and before Munich many people sympathised with the Palestinians.
Their early air piracies were bloodless so nobody hated them all that much for it.
With a peaceful struggle they would be ok now, their political problem solved.
But the rejection front took over.
Then Arafat managed to do something after camp David.
But the rejectionists prevailed again, especially after Arafat's death.
Now only military power can stop Hamash.
They want to make it 9-11 every day for Israel. They want to sabotage the talks between America and the Saudis. They want this thing to spill into Europe so there is more islamophobia, more racism and neonazism (this is Putin's plan as well).
But how to ultimately defeat them ? There is no parallel in history. They don't care about the death and destruction they bring upon themselves. They have become the new ISIS.

[Fernando 6,456]

8 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

So the IDF don't rape and murder innocent people? There is no "good guy" here. Both the IDF and Hamas are scum of the earth and are finding every excuse to perform their final solution.

What can be said however, is that for decades Palestine has been systematically eradicated even if Hamas existed or not. 

Sadly more people are going to die since Israel declared war. 

This is going to last a while. I mean look at Russia and Ukraine. Who thought that we would still be talking about a war one year after.