Off Topic Thread 5.0

DGRulz

People traveling from different cities and in some cases different states to act as armed vigilante militia and "protect local businesses" is definitely an escalation but I don't think the entire nation is on fire as some outlets would have you belive. Its being fueled by the idea that all protests turn violent. Its a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy. The whole thing with Rittenhouse is just absurd.

DGRulz

DGRulz wrote: »

People traveling from different cities and in some cases different states to act as armed vigilante militia and "protect local businesses" is definitely an escalation but I don't think the entire nation is on fire as some outlets would have you belive. Its being fueled by the idea that all protests turn violent. Its a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy. The whole thing with Rittenhouse is just absurd.

Yeah that's my take on it as well. It's dominating the media but the violence is largely contained to smaller instances.

At the same time - what concerns me is a scenario where the likes of Rittenhouse becomes a hero. Protesters, liberals and minorities have been heavily dehumanised by the likes of Fox news and other right wing outlets in conjunction with an avalanche of manipulative and misleading content on social media.

There are countless more Rittenhouses out there just waiting for an excuse and the media / president are doing their best to get them out on the streets with their guns. That's the point where I worry things will kick off and trying to take away accountability from Rittenhouse has really serious consequences imo.

irishbucsfan

Portland has been a target for these people for years. It’s not a new phenomenon, it’s just the scale of it has increased. People being drawn to the nastiness by the election rhetoric

Neil3030

Trump is hoping his key demo - uneducated white people - decide this election.

There really are no Republican votes left for Trump to win in this demo in many states, where he already has around 80% of this vote. Plus most likely to go red anyway.

But in the midwest swing states, the non college educated vote was split a lot more 50-50, Democrats to Republicans. Trump needs to convince these non college rust belt Democrats that the radical left has taken over their party, and that this street carnage will only be worse if Biden gets back in. Look at the tone of the RNC; not a peep about immigrants or the wall, it was all fear, fear, fear, radicals, leftists, looters, violence.

There are, of course, several problems with this:

1. These people voted Biden in as VP before, and there was none of this carry on. It has instead escalated wildly under Trump.

2. Tied to this, it's very hard to run on a Law and Order mandate as the incumbent.

3. Many non college Democrats supported Sanders and see Biden as an establishment pick. I.e. completely non radical.

4. For every non college vote this approach might gain in the rust belt, he loses votes with educated whites in the sun belt (Texas, Arizona etc).

5. Women. How many of the protesters are suburban women? (Moms of Portland, etc).

6. Whatever chance he had of selling to black voters the "Democrats just assume you'll vote for them" line, probably not helped by such overt opposition to BLM and the peaceful protestors.

So my gut is that this will be a half step forward, and at leaat six steps back for him. Impressively calamitous, even for him.

I posted a few weeks ago that I thought Scottish independence was creeping towards reality and I see it is now formally part of the SNP manifesto for the election next year.

Will it happen? I think the current 55% pro independence polling is more likely to increase through whatever way brexit ends up rather than decrease. I also don't think the Tory party are getting any more popular in Scotland and on the contrary are going to struggle to maintain relevance there.

Unless a referendum is completely denied (which brings a lot of new problems) I could well see Scotland going independent within the next two years, or at least voting for it.

Neil3030

Would NI have any direct shipping routes to the UK if the Scots leave?

Squidgy Black

Neil3030 wrote: »

Would NI have any direct shipping routes to the UK if the Scots leave?

Warrenpoint to Heysham would be the main one I'd say

Neil3030

Is that via Douglas? Man you're talking what, an 8-hour crossing?

Bazzo

There's a ferry route between Belfast and Liverpool

swiwi_

Withnail & I.

Worth a watch!

Buer

swiwi_ wrote: »

Withnail & I.

Worth a watch!

What year is it again?!

Now watch it again and try to drink when they drink!

molloyjh

I have a confession. I couldnt finish Withnail. I didnt enjoy it at all.

Yeah_Right

molloyjh wrote: »

I have a confession. I couldnt finish Withnail. I didnt enjoy it at all.

I have a confession. I'd never heard of it till yesterday.

jacothelad

Neil3030 wrote: »

Would NI have any direct shipping routes to the UK if the Scots leave?

Belfast Liverpool.

awec

Is it too late to do an nfl fantasy league?

thomond2006

awec wrote: »

Is it too late to do an nfl fantasy league?

Nope the kickoff isn't until Thursday night/Friday morning. I can set one up but I'm already in three.

We would need 12 people to make it worthwhile. If anyone wants in post on the thread.

Podge_irl

thomond2006 wrote: »

Nope the kickoff isn't until Thursday night/Friday morning. I can set one up but I'm already in three.

We would need 12 people to make it worthwhile. If anyone wants in post on the thread.

Ah 10 is plenty. I’ve been in leagues with as few as 8 - it’s just a different dynamic. I’m game anyway.

thomond2006

Podge_irl wrote: »

Ah 10 is plenty. I’ve been in leagues with as few as 8 - it’s just a different dynamic. I’m game anyway.

10 minimum I'd say, otherwise the teams will all be stacked.

errlloyd

I am in another one, so I'll make up the numbers. But may auto select certain things from time to time.

thomond2006

thomond2006
awec
podge_irl
errlloyd

Buer

Go on.

thomond2006

thomond2006
awec
podge_irl
errlloyd

Any other joiners?

thomond2006

So we have five. We need more!

irishbucsfan

I can draft, pick a team for a week and then lose interest as soon as the Bucs lose their first 3 games!

thomond2006

irishbucsfan wrote: »

I can draft, pick a team for a week and then lose interest as soon as the Bucs lose their first 3 games!

Ah here you boys are box office this year, though Jameis was his own kind of box office.

thomond2006

thomond2006
awec
podge_irl
errlloyd
Buer
irishbucsfan

Those of you who signed up, it would be a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday draft for me as I'm in the AF forum draft on Monday.

jacothelad

It seems increasingly unlikely that Mr Johnson will be remembered as one of our most successful peacetime Prime Ministers. I think he'll be remembered though, as the biggest, most useless, crooked, lying arsehole to have ever been PM.




The Tories are Britain's biggest organised crime Family. Their behaviour is entirely predictable. When Johnson pisses off a critical mass of his soldiers he will be fitted with concrete boots and disposed of, a new capo di tutti i capi will slither into No 10, and Consigliere Cummings will do the rounds, ensuring that the lesser capi swear public fealty to the new Godfather. That has ever been the Tory way. Personalities matter in politics. But what is striking about Johnson is that his personality - based on his clubbability - shrinks with exposure. The brexit Tories are indeed cast precisely in Johnson's image. Chancers with no grasp of their brief... intellectually lazy slogan spouters who expect others to put in the hard work to deliver their nonsensical promises... unprincipled charlatans who sold their souls for a seat around the cabinet table... and people who sacrificed the UK on the altar of brexit as a simple expedient for sliding into power and filling their pockets on the corpses of British Business and now the corpses of the elderly and infirm.




A useless, repellent party propping up a useless, repellent man. Never forget that a country gets the government it deserves. The election of Johnson with his huge majority is a true indicator of the mindless, racist, nostalgic and culturally barbaric nature of the British electorate. Excuses can be made in terms of the starvation and fossilisation of the education system which has produced that electorate, in terms of the wedge driven between truth and perception by manipulative social media. However, in a democracy, responsibility ultimately rests with the electorate, just as it does on the other side of the Atlantic. Maybe the Covid fiasco, galloping climate change and the chaos which will ensue after Britain's disorderly exit from the European Union will wake a few of them up to the harsh realities of the world they live in.




He doesn’t come across as someone with a big personality now. He comes across as an empty vessel. He is the worst of all worlds - floundering vacuity aligned with bad temper.

Years ago I used to think that he was a sort of amiable posh idiot. He was a bumbling tw@t on HIGNFY. (Not that any of those things are a qualification for leadership on any sort) But the more you study his career the more it's obvious that he's not amiable at all, but also not an utter idiot - at least if animal cunning counts and a penchant for pole dancers. It's been pointed out many times that perhaps his one strength is that his complete lack of principle means that he can change direction at will, but he's already used up that advantage by making countless U-turns in the last few months.




He shows himself for what he is. An unqualified, incompetent, bare faced, lying clown who relies on Cummings to allow himself to be Prime Minister and relies on the sewage dregs of the Tory party for ministers and support.




His policies are so poor that in just 9 months Labour are now closing in on the polls post the waste of blood and organs that is Corbyn. Wait 'til furlough, £20 U/credit boost, eviction protection, self employed grant & the transition period all end. Then see what the polls say.




Wednesday showed just this, he was pulled to pieces by Starmer - again - and had no answers bar ad hominem attacks which the Speaker stopped. The worst, most useless prime minister in a century - and he's steadily getting worse. His performance yesterday of shouting 'IRA sympathiser" at Starmer in response to a serious question was just risible, idiocy worthy of Trump. Falsely accusing his opponent of being an IRA sympathiser while he offers a peerage to a genuine Irish Republican sympathiser (Claire Fox) who also happens to be a hard line Brextremist is the ultimate in double-dyed hypocrisy.




I think it was his most useless performance yet in parliament on Wednesday. But it's a bit like Trump now, the worse and worse he gets, the less surprised we are. Starmer did well. But a new tack is needed to finish the ineptitude off.




And as Covid gets worse, very soon now a Hard Brexit will be here - unless Johnson goes for a soft Brexit deal to save the economy and create another Civil war in his party - and that will be far worse in the economy than Covid.




The bumbling Johnson is in loads of trouble. He should be in jail.

Brexit should be Johnson's Poll Tax, but he has two advantages Thatcher didn't have: 1) 37% voted for it, and 2) he can blame the EU and Remainers for any problems. And in that blame-shifting he will be helped immeasurably by the right-wing press, which will be anxious not to remind their readers how they said it would all be plain sailing.

thomond2006

thomond2006 wrote: »

thomond2006
awec
podge_irl
errlloyd
Buer
irishbucsfan

Those of you who signed up, it would be a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday draft for me as I'm in the AF forum draft on Monday.

We'll need more than six folks.
Don't be shy!

Squidgy Black

See the reports of Trump having mocked US soldiers killed in battle, and that he cancelled a visit to a US cemetery in France because "it was filled with losers" and referred to others who'd died as "suckers".

That's a massive part of his support that they're trying to target, although the chances of it sticking are absolutely minimal.

Neil3030

Squidgy Black wrote: »

See the reports of Trump having mocked US soldiers killed in battle, and that he cancelled a visit to a US cemetery in France because "it was filled with losers" and referred to others who'd died as "suckers".

That's a massive part of his support that they're trying to target, although the chances of it sticking are absolutely minimal.

Yeah anyone with an iota of concern for veterans would have already dumped him after his comments about John McCain back in 2016. His base don't love America, they love themselves.