sadoldgit

So no truth in the rumour that Bowie was originally toying with the idea of Ziggy Stardust and the Ponies from Mars?

Turning to drink wouldn’t be too bad as most of us are probably there already. Not so sure about religion? The problem is that when times are hard, those who are good at telling people what they want to hear get a bigger platform, a bigger audience and a bigger proportion of the votes. Trump and the rise of Farage are evidence of this currently but we have seen it so often before in history. Starmer will do well to heed what has just happened in the US and to take the threat of the Faragists more seriously. It helps that Badenoch is the new Tory leader as there will be little to choose between the Tories and Reform, but the liberal centrists need to show that they are listening to people’s concerns, get a grip of the issues that the far right try and exploit so that we don’t end up like the US.

I know most people here don’t think that all Muslims are murderous terrorists but this a reminder for those who do. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj4vw1l8xvdo.amp

If Starmer had said that the money raised from the vat on public schools, the stopping of the winter fuel allowance and the inheritance tax on farmers was all going to be spent on defence, can you imagine the reaction? Badenoch had the brass neck to call Starmer out for not spending on defence in the budget (spoiler alert, he did) yet the armed forces have been under funded by her own party for the last 14 years.

No, just more knuckle dragging morons which, sadly, the sport of football still attracts.

Absolutely, after all, we really didn’t need their help in WW1 and WW2.

It has started

News coming out that the Iranians were planning to kill Trump before the election.

Let’s see if the forum sociopaths think this worthy of a laughing emoji. Bingo.

What a choice eh? Either oppressed by Muslim men or blown to pieces by Israeli men.

Probably. Doesn’t mean that they should be wiped off the planet now though. Ethnic cleansing https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-army-prevents-return-forcibly-expelled-palestinians-north-gaza You have to be a particularly sick individual to find this funny, so no surprise that hypochondriac does.

There was an in depth discussion about why certain people voted for Trump who you wouldn’t expect to. It comes down to looking after number 1. They are more worried about their personal circumstances than those of others. So what if he thinks that people of the same background are “cockroaches” , they are here and they want to survive here. If there neighbour is in danger of being deported, so what, that is there problem. Bernie Saunders makes this point very well. The far right, in this case Trump, are very good at looking after the rich and powerful (the minority) by dividing the rest of us and setting us against each other. Immigrants, single mothers, benefit scroungers, trans people, gay people, Muslims etc. These are the reasons we are told that prices are going up, we can’t get housing, we can’t get a job, we can’t get promotion etc. The same is happening here and it works. When people refer to those who aren’t Trump’s normal demographic voting for him as “thick” they are really saying that they have been sucked into his grift. Divide and conquer. It worked here perfectly too with Brexit. We were led to believe that we were worse off in the EU when, very clearly, we are by far worse off being outside the EU. Turkey’s voting for Christmas again. Now sit back and watch as Trump, Musk and chums rip off their own country.

It so strange that a grown man can be so obsessed by a complete stranger on a social media forum isn’t it? But narcissists hate it when it is pointed out that they are not as wonderful as they think and they will happily spend hours trying to get their own back, even if it makes them look like obsessive stalkers. I expect that he upset because I didn’t mention him earlier!

We can still have a point of view though, yes? Especially as American policies have such an effect on us on this side of the pond.

Perhaps it should be relevant that someone convicted of rape/seriously sexually assaulting another person should automatically be barred from standing for high office? Semantics? The issue here is that in New York, the definition of rape is penile penetration whereas elsewhere it includes digital penetration. They were unable to determine whether it was penile or digital penetration, but although he was not found guilty of rape technically, as the Judge clarified, he did in fact rape Carroll, so calling him a rapist is accurate. There are many other outstanding charges against him which, if found guilty for (if he ever stands trial for them) should probably also preclude him from standing for, let alone actually being sworn in, as President.

I know that this is tough for Trump apologists to handle but here we go… In July 2023, Judge Kaplan clarified that the jury had found that Trump had raped Carroll according to the common definition of the word. In August 2023, Kaplan dismissed a countersuit and wrote that Carroll’s accusation of “rape” is “substantially true”. As for the lower burden of proof, you still have to prove it in court. Would you argue that OJ Simpson did not really kill two people just because the verdict was made with a lower burden of proof?

Seriously? You don’t think the many champions of the right don’t have superiority complexes? You only have to look at the likes of Trump and Johnson to know that is the case.

John Crace nails it again. https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2024/nov/06/hypocrisy-student-politics-and-scoring-cheap-points-kemikaze-gets-to-work

They couldn’t decide whether the woman was penetrated by his finger or his penis. “Digital penetration is considered rape if done without consent or by force.” The judge said that the victims claims that he raped her were “substantially true.” The judge! https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/19/trump-carroll-judge-rape/ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/07/donald-trump-rape-language-e-jean-carroll

Someone made the point today that the same people who would be horrified if Trump became headmaster of their child’s school voted to have him as head of state.

It is not a question of feeling superior. It is a question of seeing many appallingly bad leaders doing appallingly bad things to other people through history and seeing people like Trump repeat the process. But it’s not difficult to feel superior to a convicted rapist, racist, misogynist, congenital liar and grifter. There is a reason so many people in this country and around the world hate him, not just me. And as someone who has read your pony over the years, I can tell you that the people you idolise politically tend to be self serving, morally deficient a-holes.

I listened to PMQs today and thought that Starmer played a blinder against Badenoch. Granted, it is her first time but if she doesn’t change her approach she will continue to come across as a 6th form debater. I met some friends for lunch and walked in on the conversation to hear one of them say how good it was to hear someone stick it to Starmer and how well she thought Badenoch had performed. The person she was talking to thought the exact opposite and, like me, thought that Starmer had made her look poor and exposed her inexperience. Not only did she get her facts wrong, she also accused Starmer of script reading, some that he pointed out that she was doing herself. She also accused him of not reading his own Budget but made a gaff that showed that she hadn’t read it properly herself. Little wonder that the country/world is so polarised if you can come away with such a different viewpoint having heard exactly the same thing.

I wouldn’t say that I was either “shocked” or “surprised” at the result. More deeply disappointed that so many people care so little about what kind of person they vote for and don’t look further than the empty, button pushing rhetoric. Trump does not care about the American people. He cares only about himself. We had a similar experience with Johnson - God forbid that that grifter will also feel to push for power again himself when Badenoch fails.

Vance baited Trump. Remind me again who the VP is?

People close to Trump have been just as unflattering about him as Lammy was. Trump will always align himself with those who suit his needs at the time. Your point about Brexit is spot on. By getting our country back we have left ourselves further exposed to an ever changing and dangerous world. Those who hang on Farage’s every word need to understand that we are not the world power we once were. We need Europe more than they need us.