MicroB

The ICC exists where sovereign powers cannot or will not prosecute.

I remember the Al-Yamamah arms deal. In the end, BAE plea bargained and was fined $400 million. I know how corruption does in that world. I have the Wedgewood and Edinburgh Crystal as proof of corrupt practices impacting the British military. BAE's ban was lifted in 2020, and the then 45th President fired the then Inspector General, Steve Linock, after he declared an emergency to lift a ban on arms sales to the Kingdom, despite Congressional objections. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-official-tried-bully-fired-watchdog-looking-saudi-arms-sales Always the danger is that the Saudi government is quite unstable, as the King ages. Iran had acquired the latest kit just before the Shah was booted out, while away getting medical treatment.

Apparently Musk wasn't Sieg Heiling it was just a joke. And this just means A-Ok in more innocent times

Thing is they are not trying to do that. In the past, in traditional politics, politicians, of both shades, would generally hold themselves to a particular standard. What would be considered a relatively minor infraction of the moral code would be followed by a groveling letter of apology and resignation, in the hope of a semblance of a political career could survive. Political corruption, hence the popularity of "Mr Smith Goes to Washington". Did Bill Clinton normalise unpresidential behaviour? Probably. 40 years ago a political candidate boasting of assaulting women in an unguarded moment would have seen his chances cooked; there is no doubt the current President said those words, and they are n ot taken out of contjext. Anybody remember the furore over Reagan jokingly announcing the bombing was to start (of the Soviet Union). They are trying to impose their own values on the US, like all previous politicians. There are no cabinet members with a background that could even remotely connect to the common man (Reagan could, because at one time he would have been a jobbing actor living on mustard sandwiches). Few have had a career in public service, especially local government (even Governors would have seen the letters landing on theirdesks from worried and angry constituents). An example of alien values is George Santos.. He rose to relative prominance despite a lifestyle that many would find offensive, or at least, completely alien. The President himself is a demonstrable adulterer; he has, to my knowledge, never expressed regret over these dalliances to his ex-wives, nor his children. Again, its a lifestyle many people would not really approve of. Many politicians of this ilk have professed to take a country back to traditional values, while being utter hypocrites, or spinning a complete fantasy of a history. John Major; "back to basics", while he was banging Edwina Currie. In extremis, I present a few slightly edited quotes (so you concentrate on the words, and not who said them) What you are describing is a Reactionary, not a Counter Revolutionary. Bannon and others do have a clear vision of America, and its not the same as the America of the past. Some of the President's social media postings come from himself, such a an AI image, or inane postings about Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen. But he also has a team who make postings, such as this: Its likely technically correct; someone has gone though various 150 year old speeches. Though bits of it was. Americans are rightly proud of the words of Emily Lazurus, added to the Statue of Liberty in 1903: For many people, this poem captures the generosity of the American spirit. Between 1870 and 1900, 12 million immigrants, mostly from Europe, landed in America, 70% in New York. In 1850, one in ten Americans were born outside of the US. By 1870, that rose to 15%. Interestingly, the rise 1850 to 1870 is similar to the rise 1990 to 2020. And lets not forget, immigrants form the backbone of the Union Army in the Civil War; 25% of the US Army was foreign born. The key principle of Birthright Citizenship was established in 1898, when Wong Kim Ark went to the Supreme Court over the matter. The Courty found in his favour, affirming the principle of jus solis.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/74/wr/mm7414a1.htm https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/13-03-2025-european-region-reports-highest-number-of-measles-cases-in-more-than-25-years---unicef--who-europe In both cases, declining vaccination rates are the reason. People in Texas aren't getting measles because of brown people in Kazakhstan.

To be fair, I was down there, angling to get a better photo. My Thai wife told me not to do it. But I did, and fell in. She gave me the silent treatment driving home. Its a biological fact that as we age, we become more risk averse due to changes in brain vascularisation. Its not an old versus young type of change, but an evolutionary trait. The young alpha male is supposed to take risks, otherwise he will never be leader of the pack. He might get killed along the way, but if he doesn't, then he has great genes. As the alpha male ages, with his brood, he avoids fights to avoid getting killed, because that ends the bloodline. I have a box of crap, out of focus photos, showing life before social media.

Correct; this has always been the challenge of a flu rapid test. They exist, but there is no big market for them, because for most doctors, they are pointless. Any diagnostic test has use if it produces an actionable outcome, ie does the test tell the doctor anything different from what they would have done anyhow. A patient comes in with the sniffles. The doctor takes a tests. Its not flu; instruction to the patient, go home and take Lemsip. Its flu; go home and take Lemsip. Anti-virals have a really narrow window of efficacy, and are a waste of time for the majority of cases The procalcitonin or PCT test, has been a rip rawing success. The PCT test is a rapid test that can differentiate between a bacterial or a viral infection. Before, the doctor was pressured into writing a script for antibiotics. Now he has a test to tell the patient that they don't have a bacterial infection, and antibiotics would be pointless, The best use case for a rapid test is cardiac marker testing. You have a "heart attack". Properly done, the paramedic will be doing a series of quick blood tests, so by the time you arrive at ER, there is already a plan how to treat you, because time is of the essence. During the Pandemic, at least for part of it, there was a case for mass rapid testing, because there was still a great deal of uncertaintyl. Now, that case has considerably weakened; for most people a positive diagnosis of COVID would lead to the same outcome as the common cold, flu etc. You take yourself to bed. Just before COVID, there was a lot of work going on to identify the biomarkers found in people who really suffer with the flu. For most people , flu is a minor illness but for some, it really is a killer. You can draw general inferences about age, obesity, general health, but there are significant exceptions. eg the 100 year old lung cancer patient, for whom COVID-19 was nothing, through to the young person is apparent great physical health who succumbs. Biomarker tests have great potential to actually identify those at most risk. All those morbidities might be related to the same biomarkers.

Correct. The market for COVID-19 rapid tests is pretty much non-existant now.

This is like those Americans who say Californians aren't real Americans.

Androcide is a classic form of genocide. It eliminates a threat and the next genration. ISIS killed the men, but kept Yazidi women alve. In Yugoslavia, it was men and boys that were killed off. In Rwanda, men were specifically targeted and women were to be raped. During the Armenian genocide, it was males that were systematically killed. Gengis Khan kicked it all off when he ordered the killing of all Tatars "taller than a linchpin". Putin as an ultranationalist and Slavic supremicist. He frequently quotesm Ilyin and Dugin. His ideology has been described as "Ruscism". Like other isms it starts off with a fantasy view of the past; Putin's heroes are Peter the Great and Nicholas I, and frequently refers to the Kievan Rus, as if that has any relevance in the 21st Century. Its imagined glories by a single race, the "Rus", with a healthy dose of self pity (the Slavs were Slaves). My point was obvious. What motivates Putin, and why he won't stop this war. History is a series of interconnected events, but ultimately, we are seeing the final death throes of the Russian Empire, as it seeks to eat itself from the inside, in pursuance of racial purity (another reason to attack Ukraine; more servile Slavs). Russia is destroying itself, because of a lack of national self-confidence, because ultimately, the Russian Federation is not a real country, consisting of united peoples. Putin sees his core support as being among the Slavs. Non-Slavic peoples are of no consequence to him; these people only exist to serve the slavs. At the same time, by not invoking mass mobilisation, he avoids the emergence of opposition to the war. He is aware that the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan was not because of Mujahadeen success on the battlefield, or American arms supplies. It was because of the Mothers' Committees; a ground swell of popular resentment against losses (also proving the myth of Soviet indefatigability). He won't stop because of mounting losses; the losses are inconsequential, and help his other problems (getting rid of non-slavs). He is confident that there is enough meat among what he sees as inferior races, to fend off any serious oppostion. However, he has built a kleptocratic state, where your success is measured by how much you can steal. And Putin is the biggest thief. The Russian War Industry has supercharged this theft. These Russian arms companies aren't like Western Arms companies, in that they have no shareholders, and they are run by essentially psychopaths. Life is good for these men. I'm confident that a break up of the Russian empire, and the emergence of a confident Muscovy Republic, which has a rich literary history, will allow it to take its place alongside other European countries, getting rid of this twisted self-identity as a "Eurasian" country. They might stop acting like Berkshure Hunts.

Russian Hearts and Minds. Russia erects Stalin monument in occupied Melitopol to mark Victory Day, the Georgian bloke who starved millions of Ukrainians to death.

I sense not a full commitment from everyone

Someone knows their history "Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks" The letter from the Sultan The reply of the Zaporozhians:

Will hit 1 million maimed and dead by 8th June.

The Kremlin has fallen.

Don't bother. On ignore. Its for the best.

I have not touched alcohol for 30 years since my sister was killed by a drunken driver and I found my Savious. Alcohol is a root of evil. Apologise for that quip. Being under the influence of alcohol or drugs is deeply shameful, and a sign of a weak and ungodly character.

I made reference to federal agents not wearing uniforms, masking their faces. Other agencies wear clear uniforms. If there is a need for plain clothes, I could accept this. Guards for a holding facility should be wearing clear unifirms. The cheap vests do not constitute that. You decided to hijack the thread with a cryptic post about a dead pedophile, quoting me. Are you implying that I am a pedophile and trying to intimidate me? Maybe English is not your native tongue. I think yuo have genuinely gotten mixed po in threads and who you were replying to, or you don't understand the quote function on forums. I am waiting for a full and fullsome retraction and apology.

And Russia will never be able to control or profit from the areas it occupies. https://neweasterneurope.eu/2025/05/06/anti-colonial-hybrid-defence-how-ukraines-resistance-fights-in-the-occupied-territories/ https://english.nv.ua/russian-war/three-years-of-yellow-ribbon-ukraine-s-nonviolent-partisans-keep-resisting-russian-occupation-50509857.html https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-atesh-railways-blow-luhansk-2064737 https://www.rusi.org/podcasts/rusi-journal-radio/episode-9-resistance-networks-and-total-defence The Soviets thought it was probably a done deal when theyn rolled into the Baltic states. For 50 years, the Baltic peoples never gave up, despite Moscow trying to stuff their countries with colonists (just like what Putin is now doing). You think the Baltic people should have given up, because militarily nothing was going to shift the wicked Soviet government's forces. https://www.thebalticway.eu/en/history/

It has never been up to him what free nations want to do. This is something the apologists either forget to mention, or don't understand.

Its not so much that, but there is no State Department employee who could be called to recount under oath to recount what was said. I suspect the Russian translators will give an accurate translation to the American interlocateur. But there s no official transcript about what was said, or promises made.

How's that related to federal employees turning up to work in piss soaked trousers and tatty trucker caps, with no sense of dress sense? Perhaps you are quoting the wrong post. And I am referring to the men identifed as "Police" (ICE) not the FBI.

He might have been on barricades leading the protests, for you know But you are employing Whataboutism, and you don't know the answer. Where were you when Nixon got caught/Reagan and Contras/Carter and Hostages/Bush and Panama/ Bush and Saddam/Clinton and dirty Dress/JFK and Dallas etc. It is completely irrelevant whether or not he expressed outrage and concern over Obama. People change their minds. You were evidently an Obama supporter when he "put" "them" in "cages", and now you are a Trump supporter for doing much the sae thing. So a political vagrant.

Bets being placed when "so-called Pope" is used. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/02/21/president-trumps-favorite-so-called-insult/ The US is a naturally Protestant country; Puritans form a big part of its history. One of the beliefs of Puritans, and certain modern day Protestants is that all Roman Catholics will go to hell and that the Pope is the Antichrist. "Puritan" comes from wanting to clean the church of Catholic practices. Since the 50s, at least, its been the Evangelists, mainly Billy Graham, who has been the spiritual advisor to Presidents. And Evangelists are still influential. So utter nonsense like this. There is a reason why only 2 out of 47 Presidents (Kennedy, Biden) were Catholic. Yet, 1 in 4 Americans are Catholic. Yet, extraordinarily, a third of the Cabinet are Roman Catholics. You might think, that's fair, they represent the fact that 1 in 4 Americans are Catholic. 5 Supreme Court Judges, all conservative, are catholics. MAGA Catholics is a thing, with prominant members being Catholic converts, like Vance and Bannon. Pope Leo is relatively young; he's going to be around for at least 20 years. In someways, he is a conservative Catholic, but most areas, he is liberal. Puritans split from the Catholic church. WIll an American Catholicism emerge? When will the 47th President announce his conversion? His wife is one of these Eastern Bloc Communist Catholics. His youngest son is a Catholic and he himself now describes himself as "non-denominational Christian", which of course is a ludicous position

Remember there were initially invited into the prison, then asked to leave which they did, going into the public carpark, before ICE stormed in... Now ICE etc are trying to claim they were assaulted by the congressmen, one of which is 80. They've threatened them with arrest. "The notion that I or any of my colleagues ‘body slammed’ armed federal officers is absurd. DHS is lying because they know their agents were out of line.” https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/dhs... Homeland Security Dept. accuses lawmakers of ‘storming’ an ICE facility despite oversight laws saying they could be there Three members of Congress from New Jersey, along with protesters, faced off with Department of Homeland Security officers on Friday after visiting a local ICE detention facility. The incident started as officers attempted to arrest the mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, after he tried to join the lawmakers inside the facility. As tensions grew, so did the physicality of the situation, with officers and lawmakers pushing and shouting at one another before Baraka, a Democrat, was ultimately detained for several hours. He was released Friday evening. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/10/politics/dhs-la... 2 years before Congresswoman Taylor-Greene pointedly used her right as an elected official to visit and commisserate with violent criminals in prison https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/27/marjorie-taylor-greene-led-delegation-to-visit-capitol-attack-defendants-in-jail https://www.rev.com/transcripts/marjorie-taylor-greene-matt-gaetz-press-conference-after-trying-to-see-january-6-prisoners My late father was a fan of "lock 'em up", and trusting the system. Then he volunteered, when retired, to be an official visitor to police stations. Members of the public can go in, and see the cells, speak to the inmates. He was shocked. Most of the inmates were kids. They had done wrong, but he became sympathetic when he saw them squatting in cells with no mattress, given a piss soaked blanket by the custody sergeant, denied a hot meal. He was ex-Army, and knew the police were being delinquent, and he ripped them a new one, telling them to do their job. After that first visit, even though he was an ex-smoker, he would take a pack of ciggies in. He wanted these lads to realise the error or their ways, but they were entitled to be treated humanely. So I have sympathies with both the Republican congressmen who wanted to speak to 6th January Insurgents as well as the Democrat politicians wanting to meet those in ICE custody. In both cases, there are federal jobsworths who probably are trying to cover things up, (not doing their job basically). To block a mayor seems semantics. As the former judge said, normally facility officials are overjoyed when politicians want to visit them.