Off Topic Politics Thread

[San Tejón]

Warning, satire incoming...

WASHINGTON -- In a move that surprised many commentators today, Donald Trump has announced that he intends to make compassion illegal. "Compassion is the enemy of economy. Too many people are undercutting our economy by helping others for nothing."

Under the motion dubbed "Make War on Love" acts of decency and concern for others would be punishable by a fine of $100 for first time offenders rising to up to two years in prison for repeat offenders.

"It's despicable that this behaviour has been allowed to go on for so long unchallenged," Elon Musk tweeted. "Acts of charity have undermined the profitability of many sectors. How can we expect investment from entrepreneurs keen to exploit our underclass if our efforts are constantly being undermined by woke liberals? High time we brought this to an end."

Some have raised ethical concerns and questioned whether the proposed legislation might run contrary to the religious beliefs of Trump's base, but PragerU professor, Dr Prosperity Makewish, states "There's precedent for this motion. The Bible is very clear on this. In Jesus' day, the leaders were defined by their dogmatism, narrow self-interest and complete lack of moral rectitude. If we want to see Christ's return in rapture, it is essential we expect our leaders to act in the same way."

The debate continues.

I think the Tories beat him to it.

 

[It'sOnlyAGame]

Excellent post on Musk by PR guru Mark Borkowski -

"Topic of the week the inaugural Musk salute. Oh, the delicious irony of it all. The world's richest attention seeker has finally jumped the shark, and we're all pretending to be shocked. About as shocking as a celebrity's "candid" paparazzi shot. Pure performance, darling, and not even a good one.

Look, I've spent decades watching the publicity machine chew up and spit out the great and the good, but Musk's latest performance is something else. It's like watching a tech genius have a midlife crisis in real time, played out in 280-character bursts of increasingly desperate look-at-me syndrome.

Remember when he was actually disrupting things? Proper disruption, mind you, not this dreary pantomime of provocation that reads like a masterclass in reputation suicide. These days he's like those fading celebrities who ring the tabloids to tell them which beach they'll be photogenically jogging on. Except his beach is Twitter, and instead of jogging, he's doing the dance of the desperate attention seeker.

The whole spectacle reminds me of every Silicon Valley boy wonder who started believing their own press. First comes the innovation, then the adulation, then the inevitable descent into what I call 'founder's syndrome' – where every random thought seems worthy of a global announcement. At least Steve Jobs had the turtleneck. Musk's got... what exactly? A Twitter feed that reads like a teenager's diary left open on purpose.

Here's the thing about publicity: it's like Tabasco sauce. A drop of it makes a bland meal interesting. Pour the whole bottle on, and you've ruined the dinner and made yourself look like a proper plonker in the process. Our Elon's not just emptied the bottle – he's bought the factory.

The real tragedy? He's actually got something worth shouting about. Electric cars. Space rockets. The stuff of proper headlines. But no, apparently it's more fun playing the professional provocateur, serving up daily doses of outrage to an audience that's becoming increasingly harder to shock.

You know what's next, don't you? This is the bit where the narrative turns. Where the 'misunderstood genius' storyline starts wearing thin. Trust me, I've seen this show before. It never ends with a standing ovation.

Welcome to the modern attention economy, where even the richest man in the world is desperate for attention. If it weren't so tragic, it'd be hilarious. Actually, scratch that – it is hilarious. Just not for the reasons he thinks."

He obviously doesn't have much time for Musk but this version has more credibility than the "latent Nazi" tirades that some would prefer.

 

[Libby]

TBH I'm not sure why they have to go back through the horrific events of that day in such detail - just makes it more traumatic for the innocent people who have had their lives ripped apart by that monster. Just sentence the **** to life and let him rot in prison and be done with it.

Always part of the process. It's horrific but also important for people to know the facts of what he did imo.

 

[tomw24]

Always part of the process. It's horrific but also important for people to know what he did imo.

I do get that. Unfortunately it's given that murdering **** the chance to get himself thrown out of court. I bet he refuses to hear his sentence in person as well. Personally, he forced into court to hear his sentence if he refuses, even if they have to drag him in by his hair.

 

[garysfc]

I’d struggle enormously to write what I think should be done to this “thing”.
Edit: Life imprisonment, even solitary is way, way to lenient for him.

 

[Puck]

Always part of the process. It's horrific but also important for people to know the facts of what he did imo.

Agreed. I made the mistake of reading some of it a little while ago and I feel sick to my stomach.

The effects on the survivors are almost worse than the killings. That poor dance teacher saying "As a 36-year-old woman I cannot give myself compassion or accept praise, as how can I live knowing I survived when children died."

 

[It'sOnlyAGame]

The ability of a President to pardon convicted criminals is in itself an absurd piece of American justice. Maybe there is a place for it when a suspected political punishment has been unfairly dished out by a previous regime but as we have seen, even that can be abused.
What happens in the USA has an influence on this country to some degree and I can understand there is interest in this over here.

But what I can't understand is the absolute anger shown on this thread to what is going on in another country while playing down the deliberate, complicit and dishonest handling of the rape gangs in our own country. You can't do anything about the absurdity in America but you can protest about what goes on here. Those crimes were horrendous but every excuse under the sun has been wheeled out for not holding an independent national enquiry looking solely into the corrupt organisations that allowed them to continue. The whole thing stinks of a cover up with politicians afraid of what an inquiry may unearth. It should incense everyone from all political persuasions but apparently decisions made in America are what gets posters really angry.

 

[StJabbo1]

I’d struggle enormously to write what I think should be done to this “thing”.
Edit: Life imprisonment, even solitary is way, way to lenient for him.

I'm sure his segregation will slip at some point and he'll get a good hiding or maybe coco'd whereby boiling coco is accidentally spilt through an open grating above.

 

[tomw24]

Rudakubana refuses to enter court for sentencing. ****ing coward.

 

[tomw24]

Rudakubana given life for all counts of murder/attempted murder to be served concurrently, must serve a minimum of 52 years.

 

[Libby]

About the best that can be expected given a whole life term wasn't possible.

Hopefully he serves less than a year after a screw makes a 'mistake'

 

[tomw24]

About the best that can be expected given a whole life term wasn't possible.

Hopefully he serves less than a year after a screw makes a 'mistake'

Nah, death's too easy for him. I'm sure there are plenty of inmates who know how to extract maximum pain without killing someone.

 

[saintlyhero]

I am not a parent myself, but how demonstrably bad does your child have to be before you shop them or refer them to mental health services.
Appreciate the enquiry will give us the full facts and local authorities will no doubt be the whipping boys, but what can parents do?
Are they living in denial?

so hard to know what to do with people who have such dangerous mindsets and fantasies, whilst living in a “humane” society

 

[Libby]

I am not a parent myself, but how demonstrably bad does your child have to be before you shop them or refer them to mental health services.
Appreciate the enquiry will give us the full facts and local authorities will no doubt be the whipping boys, but what can parents do?
Are they living in denial?

so hard to know what to do with people who have such dangerous mindsets and fantasies, whilst living in a “humane” society

He was referred to lots of services. Shameful that he wasn't stopped beforehand.

 

[StJabbo1]

He was referred to lots of services. Shameful that he wasn't stopped beforehand.

Indicative of the lack of resources after years of austerity.

 

[St. Luigi Scrosoppi]

Mrs Godders went shopping in town today and came home with a new shirt for me. It was black. I said I don't wear black shirts and she said the shops are full of them and she said black shirts are becoming very popular. Then we saw the ****ing irony of what she had just said.

 

[Libby]

When driving back from Nottingham the other day I noticed the new logo on the signs at the edge of the city.

It's ****ing horrific. What was wrong with 'international maritime city'? You know, something which actually represents the city's history.

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Worse thing is I bet they paid some prick 6 figures to come up with that load of ****e. Can't get ****ing bins emptied correctly though the useless ****s.

 

[LincolnSaint]

When driving back from Nottingham the other day I noticed the new logo on the signs at the edge of the city.

It's ****ing horrific. What was wrong with 'international maritime city'? You know, something which actually represents the city's history.

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Worse thing is I bet they paid some prick 6 figures to come up with that load of ****e. Can't get ****ing bins emptied correctly though the useless ****s.

You must log in or register to see media

 

[Puck]

When driving back from Nottingham the other day I noticed the new logo on the signs at the edge of the city.

It's ****ing horrific. What was wrong with 'international maritime city'? You know, something which actually represents the city's history.

You must log in or register to see images

Worse thing is I bet they paid some prick 6 figures to come up with that load of ****e. Can't get ****ing bins emptied correctly though the useless ****s.

That's dreadful and I'm only exaggerating a little when I say that design might even be dangerous. When I looked at that logo I assumed I had something in my eye that had made my vision go blurry.

 

[Shandy_top_89]

When driving back from Nottingham the other day I noticed the new logo on the signs at the edge of the city.

It's ****ing horrific. What was wrong with 'international maritime city'? You know, something which actually represents the city's history.

You must log in or register to see images

Worse thing is I bet they paid some prick 6 figures to come up with that load of ****e. Can't get ****ing bins emptied correctly though the useless ****s.

Not quite but it was around 80k