Off Topic Politics Thread

The Right on X have a bizarre attitude towards Ukraine. They keep saying all they want is people to stop dying, but every time Russia does something barbaric you get all these American MAGA trolls putting up the old laughing emojis and saying ‘who cares?’ Add to that the constant equivocating of aggressor and victim - and the false narratives that a) internal corruption justifies invasion by an even more corrupt state, b) Russia was provoked by the murder of Russians in Donetsk, c) Russia is justified due to NATO and d) nukes. I have never seen such an army of bots spamming absolute drivel.

 

Yeah, this is a guy who thinks it would be “funny” if the US gave Russia military aid. Seems a great guy…

 

Be interesting to see if Eutelsat, a French satellite operator that covers all of Europe and more, can step up and replace Starlink.
I saw an American YouTube video talking about it and the French company are interested, it seems.
Also saw somewhere that Musk is trying to get Starlink into Italy but is meeting with some resistance.
Why would any country run the risk of signing up to Musk, when he has been threatening to shut the service down to Ukraine?
Be good to see another of his businesses tank, especially if the drop in value affects the loans he has taken out based on share values. I think he used Tesla shares to buy Twitter, although I might be wrong.

 

Apparently now Russia are refusing a ceasefire. Let’s hope they get equal criticism from the Americans.

 

There has been alot of discussion on websites today about the ability of the Americans to operate a kill switch to render all American hardware operated by European military forces uncmuding F35s.

The inference was that this will facilitate European industries to develop their own equipment.

It is becoming apparent what America First means. I would reiterate that this is what the American's voted for and underscores what this means for everyone else. Basically, Europe cannot guarantee having the US as an ally and may have to consider them as an enemy working contrary to European interests.

Quite interesting to hear about Canada levying 200 % tariffs on American agricultural produce. This did not get much coverage elsewhere . I can understand Trump's position although the manner of going about it is completely wrong. America First means the US dominating the West and diminishing the importance of her allies even if this makes countries like Russia more important.

 

Re dairy products from https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/10/politics/trump-canada-dairy-tariffs-fact-check/index.html
"Those high tariffs kick in only after the US has hit a certain Trump-negotiated quantity of tariff-free dairy sales to Canada each year – and as the US dairy industry acknowledges, the US is not hitting its allowed zero-tariff maximum in any category of dairy product. In many categories, notably including milk, the US is not even at half of the zero-tariff maximum."

“Trump also made a claim that is simply false. He told reporters Friday that the situation with Canadian dairy tariffs was “well taken care of” at the time his first presidency ended, “but under Biden, they just kept raising it.”
"In reality, Canada did not raise its dairy tariffs under then-President Joe Biden, as official Canadian documents show and industry groups on both sides of the border confirmed to CNN. The tariffs Trump was denouncing Friday were left in place by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, which Trump negotiated, signed in 2018 and has since touted as “the best trade deal ever made.”

More Trump lies and disinformation.

 

That’s because you understand nothing about negotiating or the real world.
Canada caved almost immediately after you posted this.

 

Caved? They dropped a retaliatory tariff on electricity. That isn’t caving. I think you are the only expert economist I have seen who thinks this trade war is going well for the US.

How are those new flesh and blood Teslas, by the way?

 

Jabbo

Info in agricultural tariffs came from Evan Davis on Radio 4 last night.

Os

I understand the concept of taking an extreme position on a deal but doing this consistently just makes the opposition take a simular stance and makes Trump look like a novice and an idiot. He was nit even thos stupid in his first term.

I have to admit that i agree that the talk of a recession is premature and no one is looking at how investment in shooting up in America. This time next year, i think it more likely that the American economy will boom. My opinion is just how much ordinary American people will benefit. The poor will be worse off.

 

Two tier Kier’s identity politics are going to do a LOT of damage to this country.

 

How strange that the function on Twitter you could use, to ask @grok to fact check a post in its replies seems to have been disabled (or as Grok says "has gone flaky") since people were using it to fact-check Elon's posts, and making him look like a charlatan. Free Speech Absolutism (unless you're fact checking the boss).

 

Thanks Ian I'll look for it on BBC sounds. At the dentist now. There's a world of difference between here in the Netherlands and what appears to be the case in the UK.

 

The European Union says it will impose retaliatory tariffs on €26bn (£21.9bn, $28.3bn) worth of US goods.

Von der Leyen says the commission "deeply regrets this measure".

"Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers. These tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy,"

Advocates of low taxes should note "Tariffs are taxes" and will raise prices, disrupt the supply chain and bring uncertainty for the economies.

 

Slightly confused here, Os, and it may well just be me being thick. I'm having a look at the full bill here - https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0196/240196.pdf - and he's cherry picked that section a bit. As far as I'm reading it though, it's saying that a local planning committee has to have regard for the people in a certain area that are going to be impacted, and should *consider* the effect on racial and religious groups?

I may be totally wrong, so please do explain if so, but isn't that a sensible and normal thing to do?

 

Just another thing I'm confused by - seems to be a habit this morning - I see that Trump is saying that the people burning inanimate objects (Teslas) are going to be categorised as 'domestic terrorists' and when they're caught they'll "go through hell", but the people who attacked a state building and actual humans on January 6th are pardoned and are "unbelievable patriots".

Seems strange.

You could definitely call that “two tier”.

 

I like that; two tier trump - TTT

He’s definitely a strange one. I get some of the basic lines he’s trying to implement. Reduce Gov spending, increase made in US but he’s a total tool with regards implementation. I recall someone (Os?) referencing some of Trumps previous books where he just scatter guns loads of virtually absurd policies, knowing / hoping 1-2 stick. Seems exactly what he’s doing. Unfortunately there’s going to be a lot of fall out.

 

**** sake, the guy isn’t even pretending…if these are your ‘sources’, you have no place criticising the supposed bias of legacy media.

 

It's absolutely bizarre that people regard these social media disgraces as a legitimate source of news and the Putin bots are allowed free rain. More power to the hackers that go for them. Free speech is tagging a Tesla.

 

Agreed on the first point, though I wouldn’t condone the vandalising or destruction of private property.

I do find it bizarre though, that there are people who would get frustrated at the apathy of Saints supporters, and calling for them to protest SR and “let them know what we think” etc. That’s essentially what these anti Tesla protests are, except they’re more punchy because it’s protesting against the ruination of people’s jobs, lives and money. It’s not eleven blokes kicking a ball around. It’s far more vital than that. They also don’t have a stadium to centre the protest, where the ‘baddies’ are - the only place is Tesla factories and showrooms.

So it feels a bit two tier to want people to rise up in the face of a football club ownership making a couple of mistakes, but to start pearl clutching when it’s people who are having their lives tipped upside down protesting by defacing a few cars.

 

Make it two tier twat trump TTTT.

I reposted an article by Prof. David Honig of Indiana University re Trump's negotiating technique first put up by Chilcs. It's worth a read if you haven't already seen it https://www.newsfromme.com/2025/02/02/wonky-stuff/