Off Topic News & Current affairs

The news seems to be full of despots who don't want democracy, Myanmar, Russia and Belarus and China are prominent.

 

I shouldn't be surprised I suppose.

The impeachment proceedings in the Senate have been Trumpified - descended into chaos.
Witnesses will now be called, to discuss a telephone call Trump might have made during the Capitol Building riot. The then-President might have said some very ill-advised things (not like him at all!)
In retaliation, the Republicans want to call over 300 witnesses. Oh dear.

And the leader of the Republicans in the Senate Mitch McConnell says he'll be voting to acquit Trump.
You couldn't make it up.

 

Trump has been acquitted.

Not unexpected I suppose.
7 Republican Senators voted to convict him, but 17 were required to reach the two thirds Senate majority required.

Sadly this means a future President can behave exactly as Trump behaved - or worse - and remain in power.
Congress is now a legitimate target for terrorist attack by anybody who can organise it.
The age of Mob Rule in America has just begun.

 

The next Republican could be a cleverer version of Trump, maybe Mike Pompeio. When politics becomes so tribal that you hate your opponents, you start to believe that the end justifies the means, even if it means undermining democracy.

 

Trump getting off is no big surprise. My worry is that he will try and return for a second spell in office. Incredibly he has still got a large number of Supporters.

 

He has been exposed as an out-and-out hatemonger, which will deter some corporate sponsors from backing him - or those who champion him openly.

But Congress has also exposed its weakness in failing to convict him.
Its moral authority has been badly damaged. Something that will hurt America for a long time.

Those fences around the Capitol building will have to become permanent, or the place will be ransacked again.
A wall that Trump built more enduring than the one on the Mexican border.

 

Lying is acceptable- official.

 

It is depressing that 43 out of 50 Republican Senators were OK with Trump's behaviour on January 6th.

There's little point any of them condemning the violence and loss of life on that day in the future.
The mob itself made no secret that it was fighting for Trump - just as he ordered it to.

Peaceful transition of power in the USA is now over.
Every future Election will be accompanied by wall-to-wall fraud allegations and refusal to accept the result.
And there will be more rioting, and more killing, every four years now.

 

a bit like a minority of remoaners tried with Brexit?

 

most of them are up for re-election soon. They calculated that upsetting moderates and democrats is better than upsetting trump fans.

 

Discretion is the better part of valour. I wouldn't risk getting on the wrong side of a howling mob whipped up to a frenzy. TRump has shown how he can do this.

 

It's called appeasement, and it's not what they were elected to do.

We know what appeasement leads to.

 

It's started going that way. Seriously.

 

Like proroguing Parliament.

 

If I recall, Parliament was just being a tiny bit naughty - trying to overturn the will of the People.
Never goes down very well, that kind of thing.

Oh my, perhaps the Lib Dems & The SNP have more in common with Ex-President Trump than they would like to admit

No offence intended though. We've all been over this plenty of times before..

 

A "9/11" style Independent Commission is to be set up to inquire into the storming of the Capitol Building.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56077776

A logical and necessary move in my view.
One of the reasons the second impeachment failed was that it was seen too much as a political tactic by the Democrats. It had too little objective credibility.
Even if the Commission does not have powers of its own to prosecute those it finds responsible for the assault on Congress, more Americans will take its findings seriously if it is seen to be as independent as possible.

Needless to say Trump and his rabble of fanatics will dismiss it as part of the 'biggest witch-hunt' etc.
But it is important to at least try to oppose the growing trend of revolutionary hatred in US politics, fuelled by Trump's lies.
If left unchallenged, they will provoke an equally poisonous reaction from the radical Left.
And there may never be another peaceful transition of power.

 

This is a bitter story - and an inadequate response to cruel injustice in my opinion.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56079009

Ex-service folk should not have been dismissed because of their sexuality in the first place.
Granted that may seen easy to say now, in an age when discrimination based on sexual orientation is viewed as wrong by society and a substantial majority of people here in the UK.

But even at the time (before the year 2000) was it really necessary to strip those dismissed of the honours they had won through showing courage in defence of this country? What did their bravery have to do with their sexuality?
One man had his medals actually cut off his uniform.

And now, for the MoD to graciously say these people can "re-apply" for their honours is nothing short of a fresh insult.
Those honours should be reinstated automatically.

 

I don't know what the matter is with giving medals out. My father in law was on the North Atlantic Runs, described by Churchill as "The worst journey in the World", his ship was torpedoed, the sailors were awarded bravery medals by Russia, yet only recently did they get an award from this country. On another thread I mentioned Jacky and Murphy, the donkey-ride man who was refused a posthumous medal in WW1 probably because of his humble origins.

 

I'd guess that somewhere along the line they don't want to give out lots as it devalues the worth if everyone gets one, but when that is reduced to denying someone a medal for real bravery because of their origens (or just because there is a limit to how many they want to give out) that surely devalues them as well. The two yo cite are dreadful examples.
On another level, the fact that the Nobel prize is never awarded posthumously is also a really crap idea - do people genius ideas become worthless if they die (Marie Curie is a good example but there are a few examples. I believe the of people who decoded the DNA structure, three got awards but the fourth died before the event and got nothing!).