General News Thread

[SeiKeo]

Vote Liberal Democrat

Democrats...

[Kareshy]

Winning, I think, erased much of the chaos of the campaign from general memory.
And, if we're talking about lasting impressions, I don't think the "cybernats" did their side any particular favours either.

I'd agree if he had won all of them, but how close the Scottish referendum came is now a historical prelude to his eventual fucking up the EU Referendum.

Because he thought he could demonstrate to the persistent supporters of those damaging positions that they were a minority and that the wisdom of the people was against them. And then either they'd bloody shut up or he could at least say he had a mandate to completely ignore them.

I mean, to me the answer is he thought he could safely exploit their voting bloc without actually following through on the consequences of either action. But in any case he could ignore them anyway. There was no real call to grant them the opportunity, and the presence of a legitimate referendum granted those supporters a campaign opportunity that they had never seen before. Cameron willfully took risks with what his own rhetoric says he believed to be the best interests of the United Kingdom, and he did it several times, solely for political expedience.

[2Bad]

Yes, we really need you tarring an entire party of a country you don't even live in with the same brush too.

Are you really going to stand up for the Tories?

[Five_X]

I think most people in this thread argue against a single-party state, yeah.

[2Bad]

I think most people in this thread argue against a single-party state, yeah.

I mean if that's the issue than rather than talking about parties at all we should be talking about how to launch Corbyn and Cameron specifically into the sun.

[Mcjon01]

Yes, we really need you tarring an entire party of a country you don't even live in with the same brush too.

Enforcing this would leave like ten posts in this entire thread

[Seika]

I mean, to me the answer is he thought he could safely exploit their voting bloc without actually following through on the consequences of either action.

I was giving the generic political answer as to why one might call a referendum where one believes the other side could damage the country. Cameron's actual personal motivations I have no idea about.

But in any case he could ignore them anyway. There was no real call to grant them the opportunity, and the presence of a legitimate referendum granted those supporters a campaign opportunity that they had never seen before. Cameron willfully took risks with what his own rhetoric says he believed to be the best interests of the United Kingdom, and he did it several times, solely for political expedience.

The Scottish referendum had been coming for a long time and is far from Cameron's doing alone.

Europe - well, I guess you could argue that it had been coming for at least as long but, no, a Milliband government wouldn't have had to hold it. But Cameron did have to. The party put that commitment in their manifesto because they were anticipating either a loss of power or a return to LD coalition: in the first case, they don't have to care; in the second, Tory rebels - and, under Cameron/Clegg that persistently meant Eurosceptics and the right of the party generally - are in a beautiful position to undermine the party and the government, and potentially make both inoperable. The surprise circumstance that was actually winning with a tiny minority changed that position from 'beautiful' to 'absolutely perfect'.

The voting system referendum was the frivolous and unnecessary one which only went through because of the coalition: both other bullets seriously had to be bitten at some point in any case. The shame is not in holding them; the shame is in losing them. (And that's shared by certain other major party members who are still in thrall to the idea of the Soviet Union).

[mAc Chaos]

Enforcing this would leave like ten posts in this entire thread

Somewhere in Japan, Spinach cries a single tear of joy.

[Frostyvale]

[Ace]

let's throw off the shackles of government and live in anarchy like god intended amen

[SeiKeo]

force a man to drop his own mind and to accept your will as a substitute, with a gun in place of a syllogism, with terror in place of proof, and death as the final argument-is to attempt to exist in defiance of reality. Reality demands of man that he act for his own rational interest; your gun demands of him that he act against it. Reality threatens man with death if he does not act on his rational judgment: you threaten him with death if he does. You place him into a world where the price of his life is the surrender of all the virtues required by life-and death by a process of gradual destruction is all that you and your system will achieve, when death is made to be the ruling power, the winning argument in a society of men.

"Be it a highwayman who confronts a traveler with the ultimatum: 'Your money or your life,' or a politician who confronts a country with the ultimatum: 'Your children's education or your life,' the meaning of that ultimatum is: 'Your mind or your life'-and neither is possible to man without the other.

"If there are degrees of evil, it is hard to say who is the more contemptible: the brute who assumes the right to force the mind of others or the moral degenerate who grants to others the right to force his mind. That is the moral absolute one does not leave open to debate. I do not grant the terms of re

[Frostyvale]

"America will descend into chaos. It'll be the Wild West all over again. No law, no order. Fire will spread across the world. The people will fight... And through battle they will know the fullness of life. At last... Our father's will... His Outer Heaven... Is complete."

[Mcjon01]

So I see Spicer decided to go with the "I know you are but what am I" defense in regards to questions about the finding that there's no evidence of surveillance of Trump Tower, masterful. Also it was hard to parse that angrily panted five minute list of news articles he put out as evidence but I'm pretty sure I heard him accuse Obama of personally spying on Trump without a warrant by asking Britain to do it then tell him what they found, so the ball is in your court now Brits. Did you do it?

[Kareshy]

"We're not going to prejudge the outcome" -Sean Spicer on Trump's claim that his tower was wiretapped on orders from Obama.

[2Bad]

Something something end of history

[asterism42]

Lol at all the Trumplets bitching about Hawaii. Saying shit like 'let the grownups run the mainland' and vowing to cede it to the Japanese.

[Mcjon01]

I wish we'd let the grownups run everything but unfortunately that's not what we voted for.

[asterism42]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/...er_lucky_hotel

Like a fuckin' novel

[Five_X]

BBC long reads are quite good.

[Mcjon01]

I just want to say I love it when Trump calls himself a Trader.