Politics, The Final Frontier (Politics)

[Ishmael]

How's this:

The Democrat Party has access to real polls that show the chance of winning the presidency to be roughly nil.

They have therefore decided to use the election as a means of protecting their Ukrainian and Chinese corruption racket by floating the chief crook as the supposed candidate for the highest office in the land--making him and all his associates untouchable for the time being and, hopefully, laying an impeachment trap for Trump following his reelection.

[Mick Harper]

Would this be like all the previous impeachment traps that he triumphantly lumbered into and said, "Now what?"

I am intrigued by these secret polls of yours. Perhaps you could explain how this works. I would think the real American state has realised that the Democrats will walk it and have prepared an impeachment trap for Joe Biden. Then their real candidate, his running mate, will become president.

[Ishmael]

[Mick Harper]

Before throwing away both.

[Mick Harper]

I get sent, somewhat arbitrarily, details of paper B because I looked at paper A and this is proving a notable addition to the serendipitous acquisition of knowledge. The Soviet Union is gone, but we are inclined to forget that Belarus lives on as a fossil remnant. The vilest crime in the twentieth century -- in terms of mass suffering -- was probably the Stalin-induced famine in the Ukraine. Here is a fossil remnant.

[Mick Harper]

This week's competition is to decide which of these successive headlines best sums up the Guardian's weltanschauung

[Mick Harper]

Emily Maitlis got slaughtered for her intro on Newsnight which, when I watched it at the time, seemed reasonable enough but on re-watching was clearly over the line. That's not what I'm posting about.

If we are serious about wanting a plurality of views from our media why can't the government have its own channel? Why can't we have an RTE? There'll be no compulsion to watch it and presumably, if it's anything like RTE, nobody will. But it's there if we want to. And, who knows, it might turn out to be very popular. Many of us voted for the wretched thing after all. Surely the government is a legitimate organ of this country and deserves to be heard unmediated by those bastard liberals and conservatives that infest this great nation of ours?

[Boreades]

[Mick Harper]

I meant of course RT, the Russian channel, not Radio Telefis Eiraenn. And no, Borry, the channels of which you speak are straight news, no different from other BBC channels. They are beholden to no government. I'm talking official propaganda.

[Boreades]

At the moment, NASA TV is more appealing.

[Mick Harper]

A fascinatingly bizarre discussion on Channel 4 News on the general question 'Is race as bad here as in the US?' The theme throughout was "nothing ever changes" but the three obvious rejoinders were never addressed:
1. So why discuss it?
2. So why not abandon the current paradigm?
3. Is it true?

Oddly, the answer to the last is unequivocally "No" and it is precisely comparisons with America that demonstrate this. As soon as you have to use Mark Duggan to make your case, the pass has long been sold. In turn that answers question (1) "Apparently it is" and question (2) "There's no pressing need." But it is a fact of life that disadvantaged groups are always under the quite untested assumption that any such concession will lead to a slackening of progress. Which in turn reveals at least one of the underlying errors, voiced by a participant at the outset

[Mick Harper]

Liberals really hate Victor Orban. Why? Well, he's stabilised chronically unstable Hungary, the Hungarians love him, they've just got through coronavirus with a stupendously successful record, he's repealing the Special Powers in a coupla weeks despite the liberals predicting they would be for ever. So what's he doing wrong? He's not a liberal. He's not even that unaccountable variant on a liberal, a conservative. He's Victor Orban!

Kirsty had marshalled her clipboards but her opponent could bore for Hungary and the best the BBC researchers could come up with was "And 27% of government contracts have been awarded to his supporters". Given that support for Orban is running at 70% I agree this is not very gracious of him.

[Grant]

I'm surprised you asked the question. Liberals hate Orban for the same reason they hate Assad and Trump and Bolsonaro etc. These people stand up for their own nation and are sceptical of the benefits of globalism. Hence the media will pillory them. It was ever thus. The only question is when will the crunch happen? When will we get our 1917 or 1933 or 1949? I fear it's creeping towards us

[Mick Harper]

You are making the equal and opposite error. Being a hate figure for liberals doesn't mean you're any good. I said he was 'Victor Orban' not some member of a mythical pantheon that the liberals have managed to squeeze into your brain. When are you going to start making your own decisions, Grant, not trotting along behind the anti-liberal brigade snuffling, "I's wiv you. Tell me who to bite."

[Mick Harper]

I think things have now settled down sufficiently in both Britain and America to be able to make long term predictions with some confidence. Both Johnson and Trump will lose their next elections handily. It has turned out that while both men have been startlingly successful politically, the underlying need for a degree of competence (or rather, the perception of competence) will sweep them both out next time of asking.

The wider question is whether our current crop of strong men, populist leaders, fruitcake experiments etc are inevitably incompetent and, where democracy is available, doomed to one term or at any rate short term. What for instance prevents Boris from being competent? Can the gadfly give up his gaudy wings and if not, why not? Being in charge of a reasonably mature country is not a high bar. Or perhaps it now is -- hence the rash of strong men, populist leaders and fruitcakes.