The Politics Thread

Putting aspects of bias to one side for a minute, it is also symptomatic of the appalling standard of most even remotely, investigative journalism: the lack of research and planning to ensure that spouted 'facts' are countered and in interviews, those making spurious claims are held to account.
Unfortunately the BBC are not alone in that regard

 

Every time you hear someone using words like privatization and deregulation, keep your hand on your wallet, because somebody's trying to rip you and millions of other people off. It's always the same corny old script in these parts. Some theoretically salt-of-the-earth yahoo tells some hick-ass story about Jethro couldn't even plough his farm 'cause ah all that government regulation, and next thing you know the people who need the money least are looting the treasury for another trillion dollars.

A lot of people who don't get a penny support the deregulation scams for various reasons, but an interesting subset are the trolls. If the planet blew sky high they'd spend their last second laughing because liberals blew sky high with it. And Trump represents them perfectly. HIs two occupations are hating and lying.

 

The perfect segue for me to sneak in this article about the weaponised Katie Hopkins: https://psmag.com/on-the-milo-bus-with-the-lost-boys-of-americas-new-right-629a77e87986#.eyqc39v7f

 

Great link, HBIC
One of the most insightful and interesting pieces of journalism I have read for years.

 

Suppression of the Press takes another leap forward in Trumps White House.....
White House briefing bar: Media groups condemn exclusion
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39088770

The similarities with Post-1933 Germany continue to gather, although I somehow think that Goebbels had a rather higher intellect than Sean Spicer

 

On the day that Trump has announced that he will not be attending the annual White House Correspondents Dinner in April, this is an interesting clip from the 2011 event when Obama ridiculed Dumpf and probably sewed some of the seeds that led to later events.....

Barack Obama mocks Donald Trump at White House dinner
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13251819

 

A prominent Republican has called for a special prosecutor for Trump and his Russia ties. If this goes through, I think we could indeed be rid of Trump, because I'd be surprised if it doesn't turn up something damning. It will at the least hamstring his presidency for a while. It's a tactical move, I think. Many Republicans are looking for a good road to dump Trump and bring in Pence, and this looks like the way to do it.

It's vaguely amusing on some level to look at Republicans casting about for what to do about Obamacare. The long pole in their tent is to behave like assholes rather than responsible adults, which may be popular but is unlikely to produce a good health care plan for the nation.

 

If Trump's removed for his ties to Russia, then I don't see how Pence survives it too.
He's either complicit or utterly incompetent.
That might be the difference between jail and freedom, but it shouldn't make him the President.

Honestly, I don't see how the Republicans stay in power if this stuff's proven to be true.
Not only will they have put forward a Russian stooge as their candidate, but they've tried to protect him from investigation.
Despite the mounting claims and evidence, idiots like Chaffetz have gone after the now irrelevant Clinton, instead.
While all this is going on, he's investigating a national park's twitter page.

 

https://goo.gl/images/26BgEk

Seems like Kellyanne finds her Twitter feed more fascinating than the White House guests. Hope they didn't want to sit down...

 

Fake photo, fake photo.

 

The BBC report that the NHS lost the documents for half a million patients, a story the Murdoch Empire seized upon with relish - and neither party bothered to report the actual story, namely how the documents were lost by a private outsourcing company by the name of NHS Shared Business Services. But why let the facts get in the way of a good Narrative?

Meanwhile, on whichever planet Nigel Farage lives on, he's stuck to his message of rallying against the anti-democratic EU by...trying to glad-hand a peerage in the anti-democratic House of Lords - and when UKIP's sole MP Douglas Carswell send a private e-mail suggesting Farage should be knighted for services to headline writers, Farage responded with a mature and level-headed accusations of jealousy while demanding Paul Nuttall boot Carswell out of the party for daring to say anything but glowing platitudes about him. I believe that's a response fully deserving of the word "snowflake" being hurled his way.

 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/su...ught-they-were-iranians/ar-AAnD0EX?li=BBnb7Kz

Only in America.

 

'Suspect in Kansas bar shooting of Indians apparently thought they were Iranians.'

That's probably a Statutory Defence in Kansas and some other states

 

Why would he even want to shoot Iranians? What have they done to the US?

 

The world needs to thank the qwerty keyboard for preventing WMD armageddon
(imagine the potential USA executive order typos if the N and Q keys were closer together) .

 

Shakespeare 'the glue' that holds Leicester together

Look up that article on the BBC site

Happiness increases productivity. Oh really! LOL

Would some one like to explain that to all the bosses and owners who treat their staff as a necessary evil who should cost as little as possible.

 

Other than following the Trump diatribe on Iran of course........

 

According to Trumpists, the media are refusing to talk about Trump slashing the national debt in his first month in power.

Errm...looks like the media are not only talking about it, but pointing out that the Trumpists' version of events is utter bollocks: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...meaningless-statistic-about-the-national-debt

 

Which I really don't get either, unless he's planning on having a war with them, then gifting it to Vlad.
It would explain his massive increase in military spending.

 

A man who thinks the worlds scientists are wrong when they talk about climate change and a man who thinks that building walls and banning innocent people from travel are solutions is planning to hugely increase his weapons spending! It's not good is it!