Off Topic The Politics Thread

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Should the UK remain a part of the EU or leave?

  • Stay in

    Votes: 56 47.9%

  • Get out

    Votes: 61 52.1%
  • Total voters
    117
  • Poll closed .
Steelmonkey said:
That was released in a report last week...in a region where the border is very blurry.

The locals still want free trade with the Chinese across the border, which is marked by posts several kilometers apart.

Apparently they thought the Chinese had been building on the Nepalese side of the border, but it was actually on the Chinese side!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-60288007
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Yeah, failure of research on my part. But making **** up or not checking is the modern way, isn’t it?
 
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colognehornet said:
Putin has served as president in Russia since 2012 and previously from 1999 until 2008 - the expansion of NATO (against understandings made with Gorbachov) started previous to this. Also in September 2001 Putin addressed the Bundestag (German Parliament) in this address he stressed the importance of the enlargement of the EU and called for building a peacefull and democratic European home, which could not survive without friendly contacts and close partnership with Russia. he did all this in German which he speaks fluently. He also stated ''History will take a new turn if Russia, China, Germany and the other NATO countries, the Arab world and the United States together vanquish international terrorism'', reporters at the time claimed he was the first statesman to make such a union a tangible prospect. He was essentially opening the door to a new future in international relations - unfortunately this offer was ignored at the time, and the USA has been ignoring this offer of treating Russia as an equal partner ever since.
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Jesus ****ing Christ!!
 
sb_73 said:
I rest my case.

Putin speaks German fluently because he was a KGB officer in the de facto occupied East Germany. As I’m sure you know. I thought you were some kind of left wing communitarian libertarian, not a Stalinist.
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I am well aware of why Putin speaks German Stan - it does not make the overture which he made on that day any less real. I am truly doubtfull about whether massing troops on the border is the best way to actually register disatisfaction with the continual expansion of NATO westwards - maybe other methods could have been preferred but i'm struggling to think what. How would the Americans react if a potentially hostile power was getting closer and closer to their backyard - you don't need to answer that because we have seen it in parts of Latin America. I am not aware of labels such as left wing communitarian libertarian and I am neither a Stalinist nor a Marxist (neither for that matter is Putin) - in any case I decide my political affiliation not you !
 
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colognehornet said:
I am well aware of why Putin speaks German Stan - it does not make the overture which he made on that day any less real. I am truly doubtfull about whether massing troops on the border is the best way to actually register disatisfaction with the continual expansion of NATO westwards - maybe other methods could have been preferred but i'm struggling to think what. How would the Americans react if a potentially hostile power was getting closer and closer to their backyard - you don't need to answer that because we have seen it in parts of Latin America. I am not aware of labels such as left wing communitarian libertarian and I am neither a Stalinist nor a Marxist (neither for that matter is Putin) - in any case I decide my political affiliation not you !
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Your admiration of Putin is really touching.
 
colognehornet said:
I am well aware of why Putin speaks German Stan - it does not make the overture which he made on that day any less real. I am truly doubtfull about whether massing troops on the border is the best way to actually register disatisfaction with the continual expansion of NATO westwards - maybe other methods could have been preferred but i'm struggling to think what. How would the Americans react if a potentially hostile power was getting closer and closer to their backyard - you don't need to answer that because we have seen it in parts of Latin America. I am not aware of labels such as left wing communitarian libertarian and I am neither a Stalinist nor a Marxist (neither for that matter is Putin) - in any case I decide my political affiliation not you !
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Back with the moral relativism ‘what about America…..’ Who cares.

So what is your political affiliation? Just so I don’t misrepresent you in future.
 
Staines R's said:
I bet Boris can’t wrestle bears….and he’d look **** riding on horseback topless
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To be fair to Boris, not easy I know, he's done more, so far concerning Ukraine than most other leaders, which has been acknowledged by Ukraine.
 
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Ben Wallace has said that diplomatic efforts to avoid war in the Ukraine have a 'whiff of Munich' about them. Give it a rest mate, don't feed Johnson's Churchill fantasies.
 
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sb_73 said:
Back with the moral relativism ‘what about America…..’ Who cares.

So what is your political affiliation? Just so I don’t misrepresent you in future.
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Christian Socialist with a bit of Anarcho Communist thrown in (as in Kropotkin) I also like the ideas of Tom Paine's rights of man and agrarian justice - but the first of these more than the others. I read Marx in my early years but struggled with it. I was not a fan of the USSR nor am I a fan of Putin but I can recognise when mistakes are being made. I would want to see the end of NATO and its replacement with a new peacekeeping force (if such a thing is unfortunately necessary) which is more neutral and has no one single World view or economic interest behind it and which includes Russia and Europe in a new partnership because that is the only way we can guarantee long term peace in Europe - whether this is possible with Putin I don't know.
 
Stroller said:
Ben Wallace has said that diplomatic efforts to avoid war in the Ukraine have a 'whiff of Munich' about them. Give it a rest mate, don't feed Johnson's Churchill fantasies.
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A ridiculously high percentage of their base have a fetish for a war they didn’t fight in and are now too old to fight in one so expect this language to be more and more common.
 
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colognehornet said:
Christian Socialist with a bit of Anarcho Communist thrown in (as in Kropotkin) I also like the ideas of Tom Paine's rights of man and agrarian justice - but the first of these more than the others. I read Marx in my early years but struggled with it. I was not a fan of the USSR nor am I a fan of Putin but I can recognise when mistakes are being made. I would want to see the end of NATO and its replacement with a new peacekeeping force (if such a thing is unfortunately necessary) which is more neutral and has no one single World view or economic interest behind it and which includes Russia and Europe in a new partnership because that is the only way we can guarantee long term peace in Europe - whether this is possible with Putin I don't know.
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Anabaptist?
 
sb_73 said:
Anabaptist?
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We're getting onto deep stuff here Stan. I have a respect for the Amish people and for the Hutterite tradition and so, by definition to Anabaptism though I haven't belonged to that tradition. Closer to the Quaker tradition though I have not been a member as such, but many friends (pardon the pun here) have been. I also believe in the inclusive nature of religion so eg. a real practicing Muslim would be an extension to my beliefs and not a contradiction, because they are all pointing in the same direction, or should be. If you only have enough religion to divide people from each other in sects then it's not real religion. So what does that make me ? I don't know you tell me. But to clarify things here I am not an enemy of the USA - groups like the Amish, and many other have practiced their religions there for centuries without censure and I repect them for that, because such toleration would not be found in many other countries. The USA started off in a very different way - as a revolutionary force and their Constitution was the most advanced document of it's day - if they lived by it,and according to their roots, things would be very different.
 
QPR Oslo said:
But Cologne I don't think US/Nato have used military force in Europe for many, many years now. Those countries you mention who were once a part of the USSR boy, chose to join Nato I think? Russia has previous use of military force in taking both Crimea and supporting military action in East Ukraine, plus Georgia. Now they put over 100K of troops, heavy military equipment on not only its eastern border with Ukraine, but also in Belarus on Ukraines northern border, and military armed vessels to its south near Crimea. These big powers West and East need to calm, plus their media need to calm down. This procession of diplomatic visits to Moscow from different Countries with differing viewpoints should stop and be coordinated. Truss shouldn't be allowed out of her kennel. Brexit has clearly contributed to this situation with the UK now not just the US's poodle, but out of line with EU countries. All making Russian aggression easier.
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to be fair, the russians have been putting that many troops on their borders every year for the past few years (nicked this from someone on this forum)

Russian troop numbers...

2020
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-de...undreds-of-planes-to-border-with-ukraine.html

2019
https://www.fpri.org/article/2019/02/are-the-russians-coming-russias-military-buildup-near-ukraine/

2018
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/1/poroshenko-over-80000-russian-troops-in-and-around-ukraine

2017
https://www.businessinsider.com/wha...sians-going-to-natos-borders-2017-8?r=US&IR=T

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/05/10/u-s-shifting-forces-to-monitor-large-russian-military-exercises-officials-say
 
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