placeholder

The problem with the Good Friday agreement is that it's outdated. First off, it depends on the good will of both parties. Clearly the DUP has demonstrated that it won't abide by the terms of the agreement by refusing to acknowledge that Sinn Fein's victory gave it the right to head the Stormont parliament. But there's a more basic problem. The agreement gives special status to Sinn Fein and the DUP. But now there are other parties not religiously based like the Alliance. Why should the DUP and Sinn Fein share exclusive rights to who heads the Parliament?

I think calling it a "civil rape" trial is a misnomer. When has Trump ever done anything in a civil way?

Clearly the Mar a Lago FBI search is the reason why Republicans scored a landslide victory in the midterms.

From what I've been able to find, this show is part of WION news, which is a very pro-Hindu party that supports the current government. So it seems that whatever they report on is going to be consonant with the agenda of the current Indian govt. Whether or not this issue has some bearing on Indian govt policy is the question. Give that India is still dependent on Russia for arms (to its increasing regret) and that it is buying cheap oil from Russia, I imagine they're going to play up the angle of America spying on its allies. But that's only a guess. I refuse to waste my time watching videos when the same things could be said in writing and take up much less of my time. I've noticed that it's mostly right wingers who post videos. I think the reason for that is it's much harder to fact check a video than it is to fact check written text.

From the article: "Prosecution of falsifying business records in the first degree is commonplace and has been used by New York district attorneys’ offices to hold to account a breadth of criminal behavior from the more petty and simple to the more serious and highly organized. We reach this conclusion after surveying the past decade and a half of criminal cases across all the New York district attorneys’ offices."

If the only justification for abortion was health issues, you might have a point. But since that isn't the case, you don't.

Whether or not London is "the best performing financial district in the world", has nothing to do with the relative success of the FTSE 100. And then there's this: Fears over London’s competitiveness grow as New York catches up in latest finance rankings https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/fears-over-londons-competitiveness-grow-as-new-york-catches-up-in-latest-finance-rankings-20230330

Apart from the fact that it's still early days, the evidence you offered was utterly irrelevant to your assertion.

From the Marxists at The Telegraph: "The performance is a boost for London, whose stocks have been unloved since the Brexit vote. The FTSE 100 is still 3.5pc lower than it was five years ago, while the S&P 500 is up almost 39pc over the same time frame. The FTSE 100 benefited from a falling pound, which boosts companies that earn money abroad and then turn it into British currency, as well as a strong performance by heavyweight energy and defence stocks including BP, Shell and BAE Systems." https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/12/30/london-beats-rivals-worlds-best-performing-major-stock-market/ Anyway, the performance of these stocks tells us nothing about the continued competitiveness of The City.

I wonder what the implications of the effectiveness of these vaccines are in respect to those people who don't develop an immune response to the vaccine once the vaccine gets into wide circulation. Will the fact that less people will be carrying the plasmodium in their blood mean that immune deficient people are less likely to be bitten by an infected mosquito? I'm guessing that the figures do include the effects of the vaccine on transmission. Which is why the figure of "up to 80%" effectiveness is offered, rather than just an unqualified figure.

The headline might be misleading. As the article notes: "It is hard to give a direct comparison of the two vaccines. GSK's has gone through large real world trials whereas Oxford's data may appear more effective due to being given just ahead of the peak malaria season in Burkina Faso."

First off, I think that a megalomaniac like Xi wants to crown his reign with the reunification of China. It certainly won't be easy "China will not attempt to invade Taiwan before the end of the decade because it understands the high cost, the senior Pentagon official in charge of Indo-Pacific security said Thursday. “Deterrence is real; deterrence is strong” today and tomorrow, said Ely Ratner, the assistant secretary for the Indo-Pacific. The United States can likely deter Beijing from attacking the self-governing island 100 miles off the Chinese coast, he said. https://news.usni.org/2023/03/02/high-cost-of-taiwan-invasion-will-dissuade-china-pentagon-official-says But if Xi decides to invade, who is going to stop him? Under Xi, the Chinese system of government doesn't exactly encourage robust dissent within the top ranks. In fact, Xi has been busy appointing loyalists everywhere including the armed forces.

Really? I guess when you aggressively act as though the South China Sea is a Chinese lake, and deploy military forces to claim all its islands as your own, then you would want to put differences aside. Just so long as you keep possession of those islands. Somehow, I doubt that those countries that China has committed aggression against, feel the same way. I also doubt that Indians appreciate Chinese aggression on its border. And maybe the Sinhalese aren't thrilled that China lent money to its former corrupt rulers to finance a port that Japan and India wouldn't because they could see it was a corrupt boondoggle. And just maybe those Sinhalese aren't thrilled that Sri Lanka had to surrender that port and huge chunk of land to China for 99 years to settle that debt.

As pointed out elsewhere you and they need to change their focus from big ticket items to asymmetric weaponry. The US has been pushing them in that direction.

Misleading? It's clear who's being misleading here. So what you you call it if the Chinese military attacks Taiwan in order to establish control over it? Please, share with us those your enlightening term for it.

I take your reply to mean you've got nothing.

Who are they?

Supporters of Trump repeatedly decry how long it has taken to actually get to the trial stage. It would happen a lot faster if Trump's lawyers and financial advisers didn't pull every delaying trick they can. If the cases against Trump are really as weak as his supporters claim, then why isn't he eager to get them over with as soon as possible. Even if a jury finds against him, surely, if the evidence was so weak, the verdict or judgement would be overturned on appeal.

Instead of IMO you should be using IMUO namely "In My Uninformed Opinion" Repeatedly you've been challenged about your water vapor nonsense. What don't you understand about the fact that when water vapor reaches a saturation point, it purges itself from the atmosphere in the form of precipitation. Get back to us on this when the atmosphere starts precipitating CO2, i.e. dry ice.

So far, no defunct nuclear plant has been dismantled and disposed of. And what proponents of nuclear plants don't disclose is that no private insurance will fully insure a nuclear plant. So it's up to the govt to subsidize nuclear power through indemnifying it.

"The Iron Beam could be deployed by 2025 as part of Israel’s Iron Dome, Gozali said." https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2023/3/21/israeli-made-high-energy-laser-makes-debut

Taiwan is certainly free to do so. You think the Israelis want to risk angering the Chinese govt? Maybe they don't care. I don't know. Do you?

More nonsense from you. Not a radical position if the life of the mother or her health is severely threatened. Apparently, you believe that there are doctors out there willing to perform abortions on a perfectly healthy fetus and mother at 29 weeks. You got any evidence to support that?

It certainly does not say, as you falsely asserted, that Democrats support unrestricted right to abortion right through the third trimester. Stop making things up.

Can you show us where the platform supports abortion without restrictions? Ya think you can fool us with just a link? The only thing I saw that references abortion is this: "We will repeal the Title X domestic gag rule and restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides vital preventive and reproductive health care for millions of people, especially low-income people, and people of color, and LGBTQ+ people, including in underserved areas." https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/achieving-universal-affordable-quality-health-care/ But I guess you support the gag rule on abortions imposed by the Trump administration.