jakee

So why did Biden put it there in the first place? Come on man, you’ve gotta ask the smart questions.

Clearly ‘where trains go’ isn’t part of the Colorado police academy lesson plan but damn, should it need to be?

Whaaaaaa how did I miss that? Why does he think Biden blew up Nord Stream?

Hehe you said ‘if’ Given that the Russians have always (AFAIK) been quite good at spying, espionage, infiltration etc both home and abroad it’s incredible how bad they’ve been at securing their own plans and communications. On some occasions even tech savvy civilians have been able to listen to their phone calls, let alone what Ukrainian and western agencies have been capable of. You get the impression their tactics and movements have been as transparent as a freshly cleaned window. The one major failing of the west would be not realising the invasion was going to happen. But I think even that was a political failure rather than an intelligence failure, with higher ups not wanting to believe what the analysts were telling them.

A person in their care was hit by a train because they effectively left her tied up on the train tracks. Explain the lack of reckless endangerment?

Suspect left handcuffed alone inside police car parked on train tracks… is hit by train. I mean, what? None of these geniuses saw the flaw in an otherwise damn fine plan? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-63083486

I’ve been asking you for proof and all you offered was “YES”.

They want peace and for Ukraine to be Ukraine. Arguing that you either submit to being invaded and annexed by Russia and agree to give up future means of self defence against another hostile invasion or you’re a pro war profiteering criminal is the stupidest thing I’ve read today. I mean, I’ve honestly only just woken up, but I have already seen the Herschel Walker story.

Gimme some dressing with that word salad would ya? The 'diplomatic sources' bit reminds me of Ron's old 'special forces backchannel' claims. As if there was this group of retired grunts still being trusted with current top secret info despite the fact they would immediately spread every bit of it all over the internet

I was going to say I'm looking forward to him having to cover CNN's legal bills but you're right, it'll just be the other poor suckers paying for him yet again.

The majority of the Azov regiment including most of its commanders were stationed in Mariupol during the invasion and ended up in the Azovstal steelworks where they were either killed, or captured after the eventual surrender. Scores more died in Russian prisons, a few hundred (I think mostly wounded) were swapped for Russian POWs and many remain captive. The idea that this particular organisation is getting rich off a war they provoked is a straight up denial of reality. It's also worth noting (not to Slim but to anyone who's interested in nuance and analysis) that the rise of the original far-right nationalist Azov gang has a lot to do with Russia's hostility towards, and infiltration of Ukraine that's been going on for decades. For a long time prior to the 2014 Crimea and Donbas annexations Russia had been conducting a long campaign of espionage, bribery, election interference and all the other things they're actually quite good at throughout Ukraine, right up to the President. They installed or turned pro-Russian officials wherever they could, and sowed corruption and confusion everywhere else. The result was that during that first wave of land grabs Ukraine was utterly unable to defend itself, its official armed forces were a hopeless mess. This is what opens the door for nationalist militias to form and step into the gap, and quite frankly Ukraine was probably in a 'beggars can't be choosers' situation at that moment in time. But that was 8 years ago, and since being absorbed into Ukraine's national defence structure the organisation is simply not what it used to be, even if it does still have some neo-nazis in it (show me an army that doesn't). PS: This is also why the Republicans' stupid conspiracy theory about Biden and the 'Burisma prosecutor' is not just wrong but actively dangerous. Biden carried out official State Department policy - supported and encouraged by the EU - in forcing the removal of a chief prosecutor who was blocking investigations into the widespread corruption that was crippling the nation. Replacing him with someone who would actually do his job is an integral part of why Ukraine's ability to organise and defend itself has been so much better this time around.

Showing a picture of a Ukrainian neo nazi does not prove either that there were Ukrainian deaths quads or that I would support them if there were. I asked for evidence. “YES” is not evidence.

I’d rather you backed up the first assertion with evidence before throwing out a second unsourced assertion.

Right, nothing to do with not wanting to turn the entire country over to the Russian death squads. Whose financial gain, and what evidence are you seeing?

Very. He owns the biggest tabloid and the biggest broadsheet - though the second biggest tabloid (Dail Mail owned by Viscount Rothermere) is currently acting as the undisguised mouthpiece of the Conservative party in general, and the BoJo, populist, hardcore Brexit, Trussonomics wing of the Conservative party in particular. Murdoch's are generally more subtle propaganda. For many years he also owned the biggest cable news channel but had to sell it to Comcast for competition reasons a couple of years ago.

There's a problem here which is that the avalanche of criticism for this specific measure and U-turn has temporarily stopped most commentators from talking about how awful and damaging the rest of the mini budget is. While this was the only measure exclusively targeted at the rich, it was only £2Bn of a £45Bn tax cut package, almost every other measure of which still disproportionately benefits the rich more than the poor - and today no-one is talking about that. In every Tory interview I've seen today their (obviously co-ordinated) talking point has been to pivot to saying how great their energy bill support package is. A package which is vastly more expensive than it needs to be because it gives significantly more money per person to rich people with big houses who dont need the help than it does to those who are genuinely struggling, and which won't be funded by a windfall tax the way every other European nation is planning to do. Yet all the statements by all the Tories about their 'amazing' energy package are going completely unchallenged because all the interviewers are so laser focussed on trying to get them to say something original about the 45% U-turn which they clearly aren't going to do. Ironically while Kwasi said he dropped it because it was 'a distraction', the act of dropping it has become a very effective distraction from journalists holding them to account on anything else.

Yes. They were/are much better trained than the Russian conscripts.

The circumstances are the same - that a deputy PM has no automatic right to even be acting PM if the PM dies. Never mind that it’s all hypothetical. When Starmer is PM in 2 years time then A: Will he have a deputy PM? B: If he does, will it be Raynor? C: If he does and it is Raynor will she have enough support in the Parliamentary party for it to mean anything? If a week is a long time in politics we’re talking about forecasting the distant post-apocalyptic future. Anyway, main point is Bokdrol’s been watching too much American politics thinking we operate a ‘next (wo)man up’ system.

Not necessarily. Do you honestly think the Tory party would have accepted Nick Clegg as acting PM if Cameron had snuffed it?

Just for clarity, I wasn't saying that Starmer wouldn't be assassinated like an American President might, but that a Deputy PM is not the same thing as a VP who is definitively next in the line of succession. First, it's a constitutionally meaningless position and second, we don't have a line of succession anyway. The next PM would be whoever wins the subsequent leadership contest.

You appear to believe Keir Starmer is going to become the President of America. I can assure you this is not the case.

Ron DeSantis said it was a 1 in 500 years flooding event. So your own party is telling you that you’ve never seen a hurricane like this before.

At this point if it was a straight choice I would actually take Boris back until the next election. Of all the things I thought I’d never hear myself say…

Unfortunately for Ukraine, no one signed up to defend them from that - and Putin successfully scared the west away from directly confronting him. Protecting them from WMD attack is what was signed up to and it does change the dynamic.

Well, at least they succeeded in helping first time house buyers with the stamp duty cut…. Oh hang on a sec: Mortgage products withdrawn in record numbers overnight. Outstanding.