Politics Thread!

[Orava]

Heard a joke today...

Finland is the World's happies country, only the people are unhappy.

[Orava]

Also there is a campaign in Helsinki to rename the park directly opposite the Russian Embassy Alexei Navalny Park. Easy now.... with this sort thing...

[PFVA]

I spent the morning at home, the first of 5 days of rain.
I happen to see (on TV) all the talk about an event, a forum, about drought, lack of water, and solutions for it. The problem the event is sponsored and promoted by a (national) investment bank.
Somehow I don't think investment banks are the ones who will have the right solutions.

[F-ZeroOne]

Liz Truss - she was Prime Minister once, if you didn't blink and miss it - has been addressing a Republican conference in the US (along with some guy called Farage). She appears to have fully embraced the current Republican mindset, claiming that "unless Conservatives become more active in speaking out" otherwise "Western Civilisation is doomed".

DOOMED!

For the record, Liz, we can hear you perfectly fine. That doesn't mean we want to.

[PFVA]

And here I was thinking those two and several others were doing a great job in dooming western civilisation.

[F-ZeroOne]

Irony is something they are completely immune to.

[F-ZeroOne]

She stated at the same conference that the US "absolutely needs a Republican president" - because the last one worked out so incredibly well - but taking the confident, no-nonsense committed firm stance she and her Conservative predecessors have been known for over the past few (!) years, she wouldn't say which possible Republican candidate she had in mind.

[PFVA]

Poll made for CNN-Por give our far right party 16% of the votes in the March elections. Most of their supporters are male and live in the south of the country.
Word on the grapevine is that centre right and centre left parties will get together to keep them out of government.

[KlaxonCow]

I'm not sure what I find most insane.

That the UK Government is essentially exercising "the Divine Right of Kings" to assert, against the independent evidence-based assessment of a court of law, that Rwanda is a "safe" country, in order to furnish the restoration of the International Slave Trade, as they exchange the lives of those who are not even their own citizens for cash payments. A state-run human trafficking operation, in effect.

Just to win the racist vote at the election, as you know, just from looking at the man, that Rishi does not, in his heart of hearts, give the slightest flying fuck about "stopping the boats" in reality. It's just an ill-thought pledge, that he's bound not to deliver, even when they do start the ridiculously expensive deportation flights to Rwanda, to scupper Farage's party from gorging out too much of the right-wing racist vote.

He doesn't care. His heart's not in it. That's the only thing that Braverman was dead accurate to say in her "wall of shit". That, as Tories go, Rishi isn't sufficiently enough of an evil racist cunt - his only endearing quality, frankly.

Or is the most insane thing that all this is happily proceeding past the media and public, without even a murmur that - oh my fucking god! - they are overriding a court of law ("the Divine Right of Kings") to restore the International Slave Trade!!!

They are taking people - who are not their citizens - and selling them to Rwanda. This is a state-run human trafficking operation. It is modern slavery, by the nation state itself.

No, the fact that it's a negative price - that the UK is paying, rather than receiving the cash - does not alter its essence, as a form of modern slavery. Human trafficking by the state. Because, come on, you don't think that, sometimes, during the era of slavery, slaves weren't sold at a loss or given away as gifts? Of course they were. Just like any other goods or service over those many centuries.

The only reason it's Rwanda is because, shopping around, they were the only country on Earth with insufficient morality, over the notion of trading human beings for cash, to be willing to take the deal (and even they've been talking about maybe pulling out of this, if things get worse).

But this is not the most insane thing. The most insane thing is that everyone's acting like this is all perfectly normal.

[PFVA]

And today a few months after the political crisis of early Autumn that lead to the fall of government we have elections.

After walking down the hill to have my coffee. I climbed it again to go place my cross in front of the one of the 15 or so choices of parties. 15 is an estimate. As I read the thing diagonally looking for my choice I saw a few there I have no clue who or what they are and one I recognised fm 50 years ago and I didn't even know it was still around.

After doing my duty I walked further up for a relaxing stroll and I noticed they had already removed the 4-5 meters high ornamental cedar tree that came down with the wind late afternoon yesterday at the municipal market park. Nothing like an election to get things done fast.

Now I have to endure the noise of people walking to the voting place. Half of them go right by my place and several of them are talk to each other:
"Hey how are you? Have you gone already?
"Yes, I did" or "No, I'll go later"
"Hey don't start to watch the game and forget about" (There is a football classic this afternoon)
Some are more grumpy. "Yes, I did, I don't know why I bother, it never gets better!"
Some have other things to talk about: Two older ladies: "Ow, it's so cute, he looks adorable" Pic of grandchild was being show on a mobile. "I'll give you my instagram address so you can see the other pics."
A car goes by, the driver beeping the horn all the way up. It's our noisy far right. They are very excited, expecting at least 16% of the votes which makes them even noisier than they generally are.


Somehow I have a feeling that the centre right and the centre left, the 2 more popular will a kind of get together to keep the noisy right out of power.

Note. One thing I noticed in this last weeks. A lot of the campaigning takes place eating and drinking thru out the country. Restaurants, cafés, bars, pastelarias, different liqueurs and pastries are tried, etcv, Very popular for all the candidates from the further left to the further right. The only difference seems to be that most of the left chooses good cheaper places, and the right prefers more expensive ones.

[PFVA]

Ow boy!
According to CNN-Por projection
The centre right coalition wins but doesn't have absolute majority far fm it.
The noisy far right gets 20% and they are already jumping up and down.
Hmmm... I have a couple sets of earplugs but I may get some extra tomorrow morning.

Seriously now.
It's going to be difficult to deny them participation in the government with such a result
unless centre left and centre right reach an agreement.

[PFVA]

Center right wins with 1% more than centre left.
The noisy far-right gets 18% of the votes, 8% more than last time, claims a lot of things such as without them the centre-right is nothing.
Center-left concedes victory to the centre right and declares they will be leading the opposition.
Center-right will be forming government without noisy far-right.
Noisy far right thinks they will be winning the next elections.

For now it depends how one looks at it. If 18% is a lot of people it also means that 82% went there to vote for someone else.

Ow, the noisy far right won in the Algarve with 1% more than centre left.

[zip accident]

Center right wins with 1% more than centre left.
The noisy far-right gets 18% of the votes, 8% more than last time, claims a lot of things such as without them the centre-right is nothing.
Center-left concedes victory to the centre right and declares they will be leading the opposition.
Center-right will be forming government without noisy far-right.
Noisy far right thinks they will be winning the next elections.

For now it depends how one looks at it. If 18% is a lot of people it also means that 82% went there to vote for someone else.

Ow, the noisy far right won in the Algarve with 1% more than centre left.

Hitler only ever got 34% or something like it. Beware.

[Orava]

The far right seems to be the trend in European elections.

The Finnish government coalition now has the Finns Party (neo-fascist), a centre-right party National Coalition Party, the Swedish People's Party and the Jesus party Christian Democrats. Good luck.

[snaff]

I'm not sure what I find most insane.

That the UK Government is essentially exercising "the Divine Right of Kings" to assert, against the independent evidence-based assessment of a court of law, that Rwanda is a "safe" country, in order to furnish the restoration of the International Slave Trade, as they exchange the lives of those who are not even their own citizens for cash payments. A state-run human trafficking operation, in effect.

Just to win the racist vote at the election, as you know, just from looking at the man, that Rishi does not, in his heart of hearts, give the slightest flying fuck about "stopping the boats" in reality. It's just an ill-thought pledge, that he's bound not to deliver, even when they do start the ridiculously expensive deportation flights to Rwanda, to scupper Farage's party from gorging out too much of the right-wing racist vote.

He doesn't care. His heart's not in it. That's the only thing that Braverman was dead accurate to say in her "wall of shit". That, as Tories go, Rishi isn't sufficiently enough of an evil racist cunt - his only endearing quality, frankly.

Or is the most insane thing that all this is happily proceeding past the media and public, without even a murmur that - oh my fucking god! - they are overriding a court of law ("the Divine Right of Kings") to restore the International Slave Trade!!!

They are taking people - who are not their citizens - and selling them to Rwanda. This is a state-run human trafficking operation. It is modern slavery, by the nation state itself.

No, the fact that it's a negative price - that the UK is paying, rather than receiving the cash - does not alter its essence, as a form of modern slavery. Human trafficking by the state. Because, come on, you don't think that, sometimes, during the era of slavery, slaves weren't sold at a loss or given away as gifts? Of course they were. Just like any other goods or service over those many centuries.

The only reason it's Rwanda is because, shopping around, they were the only country on Earth with insufficient morality, over the notion of trading human beings for cash, to be willing to take the deal (and even they've been talking about maybe pulling out of this, if things get worse).

But this is not the most insane thing. The most insane thing is that everyone's acting like this is all perfectly normal.

Who cares, they broke the law.