Off Topic Politics Thread

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shoot_spiderman said:
I, and probably a few of you on here, we’re lucky to become adults at a time of social mobility

My friends and I were largely from council estates and were able to get apprenticeships and traineeships and decent, productive and reasonably paid jobs/careers

There’s currently a shocking waste of talent that resides in deprived areas of this country
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Much the same background, apprenticeship, design drawing office then took a chance to become a one man band. Later a Ltd Co going on to project assignments in all sorts of interesting places. It's not just a shocking waste of talent in deprived areas of this country there's another waste of talent in the asylum seekers many who could work and contribute.
 
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shoot_spiderman said:
I, and probably a few of you on here, we’re lucky to become adults at a time of social mobility

My friends and I were largely from council estates and were able to get apprenticeships and traineeships and decent, productive and reasonably paid jobs/careers

There’s currently a shocking waste of talent that resides in deprived areas of this country
Click to expand...

I'm in the process of sorting through my grandparents' estate. They both grew up in difficult circumstances: my grandfather's father died when he was a child, and he left home young to get away from his stepfather and (rather awful) mother. His later wife grew up in extreme poverty on a subsistence farm in the middle of nowhere. He graduated high school and had a correspondence technical certificate; she didn't graduate high school. They went on to work entirely unremarkable, middle-class jobs: he managed a hardware store and sold cars, she worked at the telephone company.

And yet being a two-income household in that era meant that they had money for a house, for a lakefront cottage, for an RV, and for property in Florida where they and their RV could escape the Canadian winter. It meant frequent vacations to Hawaii and elsewhere, and it meant absolutely profligate spending on consumer goods (they had more backup toasters than any person could use in their lifetime...why!?). And through all of it, they accumulated a not-inconsiderable amount of wealth along the way, in part because those things also meant pensions, something that functionally does not exist over here anymore for private-sector jobs.

Meanwhile, my coworker -- who makes substantially more in her early 20s than I did adjusted for inflation (and deserves to) -- and her partner, who also works, currently live in a yurt on her mother's property, because they can't even afford a one-bedroom apartment.
 
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The former head of the Mossad -- under Bibi, no less -- has explicitly referred to Israel as an apartheid state. Beyond that, the important element is his framing...it's easy for the government of Israel to dismiss the complaints of rights groups as failing to understand Israel's security situation, but it's much harder when the recent head of Mossad (correctly, IMO) frames the treatment of Palestinians as an existential threat to the state of Israel. Which it is...as Israel backslides further into extremism and the erosion of democracy in order to maintain the current system of apartheid, it represents a much greater threat to the stability and long-term prospects of the state than any outside actor.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-apartheid-palestinians-occupation-c8137c9e7f33c2cba7b0b5ac7fa8d115

“There is an apartheid state here,” Tamir Pardo said in an interview. “In a territory where two people are judged under two legal systems, that is an apartheid state.”


Given Pardo’s background, the comments carry special weight in security-obsessed Israel.

Pardo, who was appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and served as head of Israel’s clandestine spy agency from 2011-2016, wouldn’t say if he held the same beliefs while heading the Mossad. But he said that he believed among the country’s most pressing issues was the Palestinians — above Iran’s nuclear program, seen by Netanyahu as an existential threat.

Pardo said that as Mossad chief, he repeatedly warned Netanyahu that he needed to decide what Israel’s borders were, or risk the destruction of a state for the Jews.
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Schad said:
I'm in the process of sorting through my grandparents' estate. They both grew up in difficult circumstances: my grandfather's father died when he was a child, and he left home young to get away from his stepfather and (rather awful) mother. His later wife grew up in extreme poverty on a subsistence farm in the middle of nowhere. He graduated high school and had a correspondence technical certificate; she didn't graduate high school. They went on to work entirely unremarkable, middle-class jobs: he managed a hardware store and sold cars, she worked at the telephone company.

And yet being a two-income household in that era meant that they had money for a house, for a lakefront cottage, for an RV, and for property in Florida where they and their RV could escape the Canadian winter. It meant frequent vacations to Hawaii and elsewhere, and it meant absolutely profligate spending on consumer goods (they had more backup toasters than any person could use in their lifetime...why!?). And through all of it, they accumulated a not-inconsiderable amount of wealth along the way, in part because those things also meant pensions, something that functionally does not exist over here anymore for private-sector jobs.

Meanwhile, my coworker -- who makes substantially more in her early 20s than I did adjusted for inflation (and deserves to) -- and her partner, who also works, currently live in a yurt on her mother's property, because they can't even afford a one-bedroom apartment.
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That’s humans for you; give em a taste of paradise and they fill it with toasters. We might all be better off in yurts tbh.
 
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Gregm1988 said:
That’s a verse from a meatloaf song isn’t it? :p
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Phil Collins:


Some bread calls out to the man on the street
Sir, can you buy me?
It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep
Is there somewhere you can toast me?

He shops on, doesn't look back
He buys another toaster
Starts to unpack it as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh, toast twice, it's just another day for toasting bread in paradise
Oh, toast twice, it's just another day for toasting, toasting bread in yurt paradise

Think about it
Bread calls out to the man on the street
He can see she's untoasted
She's got soft crust and she's just slightly sweet
She can't toast herself but... mmm... buttered

Oh, toast twice, it's just another day for toasting bread in paradise
Oh, toast twice, it's just another day for toasting, toasting bread in yurt paradise


Just think about it

Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do?
Oh lord, there must be something you can sbuy
You can buy another toaster and another toaster
You can buy one from Ama-Amazon
Probably even while lying in your yurt
'Cause the toast didn't fit in there

Oh, toast twice, it's just another day for toasting bread in paradise
Oh, toast twice, it's just another day for toasting, toasting bread in yurt paradise

Just toast about it
Toast about it

It's just another day for you and me in yurt paradise
It's just another day for you and me in yurt paradise

It's just another day
For toasting bread in paradise

It's just another day(paradise)

For toasting bread in paradise(It's just another day)paradise
Paradise, paradise(It's another day)
 
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......loading...... said:
Phil Collins:


Some bread calls out to the man on the street
Sir, can you buy me?
It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep
Is there somewhere you can toast me?

He shops on, doesn't look back
He buys another toaster
Starts to unpack it as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh, toast twice, it's just another day for toasting bread in paradise
Oh, toast twice, it's just another day for toasting, toasting bread in yurt paradise

Think about it
Bread calls out to the man on the street
He can see she's untoasted
She's got soft crust and she's just slightly sweet
She can't toast herself but... mmm... buttered

Oh, toast twice, it's just another day for toasting bread in paradise
Oh, toast twice, it's just another day for toasting, toasting bread in yurt paradise


Just think about it

Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do?
Oh lord, there must be something you can sbuy
You can buy another toaster and another toaster
You can buy one from Ama-Amazon
Probably even while lying in your yurt
'Cause the toast didn't fit in there

Oh, toast twice, it's just another day for toasting bread in paradise
Oh, toast twice, it's just another day for toasting, toasting bread in yurt paradise

Just toast about it
Toast about it

It's just another day for you and me in yurt paradise
It's just another day for you and me in yurt paradise

It's just another day
For toasting bread in paradise

It's just another day(paradise)

For toasting bread in paradise(It's just another day)paradise
Paradise, paradise(It's another day)
Click to expand...
Didn't they pave paradise and put up a parking lot?
Yellow taxi for StJab.
 
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The Ides of March said:
Or perhaps the argument surrounding issues on Transgenderism has burnt itself out ready for the next topic of discussion such as the underfunding by successive UK Governments in the infrastructure from education, health, policing, to the environment. I think these are issues that should be at the forefront of discussion.
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Far from burnt out while children are still getting mutilated and poisoned with the help of their parents and doctors. But thanks for the advice anyway.
You can talk about what you like, I'll decide what I post and what should be at the forefront of discussion.
I don't remember you telling other posters that comments on Brexit had run it's course after months and months of identical posts. Must have missed that one.
Can't wait for more posts on the concrete crisis.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/09/07/when-will-the-news-media-stop-pandering-to-perverts/
 
It's Only A Game said:
Far from burnt out while children are still getting mutilated and poisoned with the help of their parents and doctors. But thanks for the advice anyway.
You can talk about what you like, I'll decide what I post and what should be at the forefront of discussion.
I don't remember you telling other posters that comments on Brexit had run it's course after months and months of identical posts. Must have missed that one.
Can't wait for more posts on the concrete crisis.
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Keep posting about the issue that you feel is most meanigful to you. I am not stopping you. i just felt that perhaps there are other issues. However, the one you have highlighted again, will no doubt return to be a key point of debate amongst people here. For what it is worth I take no sides with anyone regarding Transpacific issues as I have no interest in the topic.
PS: I enjoy your posts IOAG> Love the little dog! Yours?
 
IOAG, the issue really is that sometimes the means of argument undermine what could be reasonable points. Pandering to perverts? I think that is such a far out, radical perspective on the trans debate that it is hard to engage with. I read your previous piece, which was really on cancel culture rather than trans rights, and agreed with a lot of it. I do think women should be allowed to express their worries and concerns without threat and I think radical terms like TERF are horrendous.

But that is a long way from agreeing that terms like PERVERT should get to be thrown the other way. Can't we all just grow up and have a reasonable debate?
 
......loading...... said:
IOAG, the issue really is that sometimes the means of argument undermine what could be reasonable points. Pandering to perverts? I think that is such a far out, radical perspective on the trans debate that it is hard to engage with. I read your previous piece, which was really on cancel culture rather than trans rights, and agreed with a lot of it. I do think women should be allowed to express their worries and concerns without threat and I think radical terms like TERF are horrendous.

But that is a long way from agreeing that terms like PERVERT should get to be thrown the other way. Can't we all just grow up and have a reasonable debate?
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Exactly the issue. If IOAG actually posted his concerns etc in a sensible way, which would include acknowledgement of when he's got it utterly wrong (in the case of the Canadian footballer) rather than ploughing on regardless, he'd probably find that a lot of people have similar questions which would elicit a discussion. The problem is, the posting is just reactionary nonsense, fired out like a bollocks-loaded bazooka, so what *actually* is a worthwhile topic of conversation ends up being ignored as unhinged ranting.
 
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......loading...... said:
IOAG, the issue really is that sometimes the means of argument undermine what could be reasonable points. Pandering to perverts? I think that is such a far out, radical perspective on the trans debate that it is hard to engage with. I read your previous piece, which was really on cancel culture rather than trans rights, and agreed with a lot of it. I do think women should be allowed to express their worries and concerns without threat and I think radical terms like TERF are horrendous.

But that is a long way from agreeing that terms like PERVERT should get to be thrown the other way. Can't we all just grow up and have a reasonable debate?
Click to expand...

That's because he doesn't actually give a **** about the contours of the argument. He just finds trans people icky, and will forward any argument that justifies finding trans people icky.
 
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