The hoops that have to be jumped through in order to vote in America make this attempt by the Tories look feeble, but that’s not the point. It’s the whole concept of distrusting election results, which has never been an issue in this country, not once in the whole of our 100 year history since universal suffrage. As soon as you start focussing on the fact that people might commit personation, or that corruption took place in the counting, or whatever, you allow a disgruntled loser to claim that it has happened. That takes the focus off the issues on which the election was fought. It’s interesting that the American electorate appear to be getting thoroughly bored of the whole election-denying conspiracy, as evidenced by the poor showing of Trump-backed candidates.
I don't know why it came to mind but a noisy fart is known as a trump and those that let fly are trumpers (fem. trumpettes).
It seems that Mrs Sunak is STILL making money from a company operating in Russia. £11.5 million a year apparently.
I'm certainly not expecting NATO to roll the tanks out if this was a Russian missile (and not a stray Ukrainian air defense missile or something). But I also wouldn't expect NATO to shrug...the fact that Article 5 is on the table, even if it's unlikely to be invoked, means that NATO likely has to do something, and that something will probably come in the form of the shiny weapons systems they had been refusing to give to Ukraine previously.
Something like a no-fly zone in Ukrainian airspace needs to happen immediately. If it was Russian missiles, the likelihood is that Iran supplied them. They should be booted out of the World Cup straightaway.
Doesn't appear to be of the Iranian loitering munitions variety (ironically, those are more accurate). Earliest guesses are an ex-Soviet missile of some variety, because the debris looks similar.
Fair enough. Iran should be booted out anyway, for planning to execute 15,000 of its citizens who are standing up for women’s rights, but hey.
I will say: while the Iranian regime is awful in every way, there wasn't any vote to execute 15,000 people. The claim originated with Newsweek, a formerly credible source of information that has taken a sharp turn into right-wing nonsense, which misinterpreted a different article on the matter, at which point it spread: A person was sentenced to death. It's obviously one person too many, but it also isn't 15,000.
It's a shame. Newsweek was once a venerable magazine, but in a (sadly successful) attempt to chase revenues, they've abandoned all pretense to accuracy, and their opinion page is now run by a conspiracy-promoting right-wing 'activist' whose stated mission is to destroy the woke left: https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/11/04/newsweek-embraces-anti-democracy-hard-right
In other news, Texas is not only criminalizing drag performances, it's doing so in such a way that a trans person simply performing at an open mic night will now a Class A misdemeanor, meaning that it will be punishable by up to a year in jail. https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB643/2023 It also criminalizes multiple Shakespearean plays (which involve drag), and Eddie Izzard performing standup comedy. But this is totally about The Children.
I haven't opened an account or used any service that needs ID since my passport expired, so it's not been a problem. I await developments. Vin
Indeed. It's an area ripe for abuse. Walking into a polling station to vote as, say, my neighbour risks: 1. He's already voted. Result, investigation and likely prosecution for me 2. He votes later in the day and polling staff realise. Same result. That's why it doesn't happen. You get caught. This legislation serves no purpose bar making it harder for the poor and the young to vote. Labour should pledge that they will shelve it on the day they are elected. Vin
Here in Canada, you need to show ID*, but the list of legit IDs is comically long. Want to vote with your university student ID and your phone bill? That'll work. Your novelty cheques with pictures of dogs on them and your library card? Absolutely! An employee ID and your fishing license? Sure, why not! I voted a couple cycles back with a driver's license with a severely out-of-date address and a .pdf of my electric bill on my phone. Even though I was technically registered in a different riding, I just had to fill out and sign a form to register in the riding where I was actually living. Took less than five minutes from the time I walked in the building to the time I had cast my ballot. *You can also have someone attest that you are who you claim to be, even if you don't have ID. So if you walk into your polling station with no ID whatsoever, and someone there says "oh, that's Doug! I know Doug", they have to sign a little form that says that they swear under penalty of law that you are in fact Doug, and then you get to vote. None of these things have introduced voter fraud into the equation, because the cost/benefit of voter fraud doesn't make any sense.
Oh joy. I see the anti-democracy criminal-in-chief is running again in the USA. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...s-presidential-run-2024-midterms-ron-desantis It'd be good to think that even US Republican voters might have seen through his lies by now but I'm afraid my faith in them is worn exceedingly thin.
