Off Topic Politics Thread

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
Trump probably is guilty of all the things he is accused of but that quote about him and Epstein both liking young girls was not how it was perceived in the comments I've seen. It was taken as they both liked beautiful woman and Epstein liked them young.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Mr. Trump told New York magazine in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

I'm in no way defending his behaviour, he's probably treated women appallingly but this has never been seen as Trump admitting to liking young girls. But as Gregg has already said, people will believe what they want to believe.
Trump boasting about Epstein and beautiful women on the younger side - when we know how young Epstein’a girls were…

There is rank hypocrisy here as the right would be playing this on a loop forever if it was Biden.
 
Trump probably is guilty of all the things he is accused of but that quote about him and Epstein both liking young girls was not how it was perceived in the comments I've seen. It was taken as they both liked beautiful woman and Epstein liked them young.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Mr. Trump told New York magazine in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

I'm in no way defending his behaviour, he's probably treated women appallingly but this has never been seen as Trump admitting to liking young girls. But as Gregg has already said, people will believe what they want to believe.
My main point is that I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump was on the list of people that the right wants released. Whether that means he did anything untoward is another matter. Also - that quote isn’t exactly a good look since it seems to be him revealing he knew what was going on and didn’t care / do anything about it. Hardly the sort of thing you’d expect from the hero of the evangelical movement
 
  • Like
Reactions: ......loading......
Trump boasting about Epstein and beautiful women on the younger side - when we know how young Epstein’a girls were…

There is rank hypocrisy here as the right would be playing this on a loop forever if it was Biden.

I agree with both of you to be fair. Trump probably did say it the way IOAG mentions, and if Biden had said it all hell would be breaking loose. It doesn't confirm anything other than Trump's disregard for all women though. However, Trump probably did know about the young age, but due to his disregard wasn't bothered.
 
  • Like
Reactions: It'sOnlyAGame
I am shocked by Trump’s proposals for Palestine which, as Radio 4 pointed out this evening , would render him a war criminal. The last few weeks just seem to have Trump making preposterous suggestions that become daily more stupid.

I am waiting for the point when other countries unify against America. I would love to see the UK, Europe, Asia and places like Canada and Mexico unite to thwart America. Let's have our own tariffs against America abd even go as far as introducing sanctions as is the case with Russia. The threat to the environment alone is sufficient to put America back in her box.

Time to take a stand, I think. The likes of Starmer and Mandelson should be speaking out against Trump and not ingratiate themselves with this idiot.

Ditto for Elon Musk. I do not use his products but would advocate a boycott so he is hit in the pocket big time.
 
I am shocked by Trump’s proposals for Palestine which, as Radio 4 pointed out this evening , would render him a war criminal. The last few weeks just seem to have Trump making preposterous suggestions that become daily more stupid.

I am waiting for the point when other countries unify against America. I would love to see the UK, Europe, Asia and places like Canada and Mexico unite to thwart America. Let's have our own tariffs against America abd even go as far as introducing sanctions as is the case with Russia. The threat to the environment alone is sufficient to put America back in her box.

Time to take a stand, I think. The likes of Starmer and Mandelson should be speaking out against Trump and not ingratiate themselves with this idiot.

Ditto for Elon Musk. I do not use his products but would advocate a boycott so he is hit in the pocket big time.
I heard one of Trump’s people on the radio earlier saying that we shouldn’t take Trump literally. He says things and then his team work out a realistic way to make something similar happen.

In effect, he just makes things up on the fly and his team then have to retrofit policies to it. Apparently this is a brilliant system as Trump is a genius. To me it sounds like having a Grandad with dementia and having to make the house child safe for him.
 
I am shocked by Trump’s proposals for Palestine which, as Radio 4 pointed out this evening , would render him a war criminal. The last few weeks just seem to have Trump making preposterous suggestions that become daily more stupid.

I am waiting for the point when other countries unify against America. I would love to see the UK, Europe, Asia and places like Canada and Mexico unite to thwart America. Let's have our own tariffs against America abd even go as far as introducing sanctions as is the case with Russia. The threat to the environment alone is sufficient to put America back in her box.

Time to take a stand, I think. The likes of Starmer and Mandelson should be speaking out against Trump and not ingratiate themselves with this idiot.

Ditto for Elon Musk. I do not use his products but would advocate a boycott so he is hit in the pocket big time.
Why punish América, when it is Trump that needs targetting? When I think of the USA, I think of its artists, musicians, writers. I.think of its sprint machines. I see the landscape of New Mexico in.Easyrider, I visualize the skyline of New York listening to Bobbi Humphrey, and Art Deco architecture with Gershwin. I don't have the connection of Trump.with the USA as it is a nightmare that will pass if we see what happens to guys like Trump-(Mussolini)
 
  • Like
Reactions: StJabbo1
I heard one of Trump’s people on the radio earlier saying that we shouldn’t take Trump literally. He says things and then his team work out a realistic way to make something similar happen.

In effect, he just makes things up on the fly and his team then have to retrofit policies to it. Apparently this is a brilliant system as Trump is a genius. To me it sounds like having a Grandad with dementia and having to make the house child safe for him.
He's ****ing bonkers, deranged, what the **** history will make of this I've no idea. I'm watching on in amazement.
 
I heard one of Trump’s people on the radio earlier saying that we shouldn’t take Trump literally. He says things and then his team work out a realistic way to make something similar happen.

In effect, he just makes things up on the fly and his team then have to retrofit policies to it. Apparently this is a brilliant system as Trump is a genius. To me it sounds like having a Grandad with dementia and having to make the house child safe for him.
There is a reason why it sounds like having a grandad with dementia - because he is a grandad with dementia. (And for the “but the democrats!!!” crowd - so was Biden)
 
I genuinely don’t know how I feel about this.
A person’s lucidity, once they have started treatment for a life ending condition, will vary from person to person and asking someone who hasn’t spent much time with that person to determine whether or not they are lucid enough to request assisted death, would be, imo, wrong.
I think the primary care giver, ie the specialist doctor who has been treating the patient, should be front and centre in helping to determine lucidity and to give a clear view of the patient’s life expectancy and quality of life, should treatment continue.
From the moment my wife started to receive treatment for her cancer diagnosis, her mental capacity was impaired, partly due to the radiotherapy to her brain, partly due to the relentless chemotherapy and partly due to the painkillers she was prescribed.
Even during the short periods of remission, she was still taking strong painkillers that “dulled” her thought processes, so she was never as sharp and precise in her thinking as she had been before the treatment had begun.
My wife rejected morphine for as long as she could, having seen how it had affected her mum’s brain, but when the pain became too much to bear she started to take liquid morphine, along with a variety of other medications, which led to her having hallucinations as well as further dulling her thought processes.
So, bearing in mind what I witnessed with my wife, I could lean towards someone being able to make the decision up to 12 months before their anticipated death, simply because their thought processes might be more coherent than they would be 6 months down the line when their body and mind has been further hammered by medication.
BUT I think there would need to be provisos in place to ensure that they can change their mind and to prevent them from making a decision that has been forced upon them.

Thank you for sharing your story

I think what makes this so tricky is that every case is different.
People can be told they have x amount to live prior to any life altering treatments.

I think it was Terry Pratchett who made the decision to end his life prior to Alzheimer’s, but then at what point in the illness do you effectively pull the trigger and who has the burden of that decision?

My underlying feeling is that those who work in medicine and care should be solely focused on preserving life and if you muddy those waters, then it can leave to unnecessary complications
 
  • Like
Reactions: greensaint
Any talk of "punishing" America is pointless fantasy. As Rory Stewart pointed out not long ago "the British military, the French military can't operate without the US military. The reason why NATO couldn't stay in Afghanistan when 2,500 American troops were removed? It's cause various vital bits of the whole war fighting machine only America can do. We can't really operate without them."
 
  • Like
Reactions: garysfc
I used to think that assisted dying, if properly overseen, would be a compassionate procedure to save dying patients from unnecessary pain. Now though I'm not so sure.
The highlighted part above is almost a microcosm of my concerns in one sentence.
Once the bill is accepted (and this one is already accused of being too vague) it is immediately open to amendments at a later date to cover other areas. This I believe, has already happened in Canada where people who are not terminally ill are also considered for, and offered, assisted dying.
Leadbetter's determination to get this bill through quickly and with weak safeguards makes for an uneasy sense of foreboding.

Assisted dying is almost unworkable in a safe manner in the UK.

Putting aside the understandable emotive responses it produces on both sides we lack the structure to provide oversight and monitoring to make it safe.

This was brushed aside in Parliamentary debate, with ideas that high court Judges and doctors had oodles of time and the motivation to process it was unchallenged.

Now the idea that 3 other professionals such as psychiatrists, social workers and (god forbid) lawyers will examine each case is bizzare. 2 of this group are again so overworked and conflicted about the idea it'll grind to a halt or be ineffective.

Comparisons with other countries are mostly selective and invalid due to differences in law, culture and resources. Problems encountered in other countries have just not been covered by the media.

My objection to most forms of assisted death comes from my experience as a psychiatric nurse, meeting a lot of quite nasty relatives of elderly people in that capacity and observing changes of mind due to fluctuating mental state. Put the vast resources required to badly implement this programme into decent palliative care instead.
 
Musk was challenged yesterday on his false claim that the US government was sending millions of dollars worth of condoms to Gaza.

"Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected", Musk replied.

Well Elon - maybe in your position you should be careful and check the (many) things you say. And here's another idea - when you're shown they're incorrect, don't then leave them up. And another idea - in a position of power, when shown to be incorrect, make a new post and say "that was wrong - here's the correct information" so your brainless denizens don't go on believing the falsehoods...
 
Musk was challenged yesterday on his false claim that the US government was sending millions of dollars worth of condoms to Gaza.

"Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected", Musk replied.

Well Elon - maybe in your position you should be careful and check the (many) things you say. And here's another idea - when you're shown they're incorrect, don't then leave them up. And another idea - in a position of power, when shown to be incorrect, make a new post and say "that was wrong - here's the correct information" so your brainless denizens don't go on believing the falsehoods...
Of course these blatant lies should be checked before posting and corrected when challenged. People would be forgiven if they came to the conclusion his agenda to end democracy in the US and elsewhere lead to him and his minions posting deliberately misleading disinformation.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Le Tissier's Laces
I was wondering what is everyone's view on this 'Gulf of America' malarky?

Nothing surprises me anymore about America, and I find it laughable really.
It is pathetic. It just smacks of insecurity. We can all call anything whatever we like. Let’s rename the Atlantic the British Ocean. Europe can be the British Mainland. The Earth can Mother Britain.

It doesn’t change anything other than making the rest of the world roll their eyes.
 
Thank you for sharing your story

I think what makes this so tricky is that every case is different.
People can be told they have x amount to live prior to any life altering treatments.

I think it was Terry Pratchett who made the decision to end his life prior to Alzheimer’s, but then at what point in the illness do you effectively pull the trigger and who has the burden of that decision?

My underlying feeling is that those who work in medicine and care should be solely focused on preserving life and if you muddy those waters, then it can leave to unnecessary complications
I understand what you’re saying and to clarify my comments about the doctors who are treating the patient should be front and centre, in determining the lucidity of the patient to make their decision, is simply that they are giving an informed opinion on the patient’s state of mind based on the time they have spent treating them.
I’m not suggesting that they should be involved in helping the patient to make their decision, or in helping them to end their life, just in expressing an opinion on the patient’s ability to fully understand the implications of the decision based on their frequent interactions with them.