JAG

The situation must be tense - head shed has got his webbing on!

Well, if the audience is restricted to those who reply - "the usual suspects" so to say, with varying degrees of frothy mouthedness ( is there such a word?) then perhaps so. But then they dont really read or ponder the post do they, just launch into a tirade, which as I am not particularly "left wing" (as anyone who followd me on the threads pertaining to the UK will know) is rather wasted. I'm not an American, but I follow events worldwide, and the spectacle of the American constitutional and democratic experiment unravelling so quickly is a compelling one, and one with tragic and perhaps undeserved consequences for many. That is why I comment, in the hope not particularly that people respond, but that, if like me, they are observing and concerned, they consider my points whilst forming their opinions. I certainly dont expect to convert the usual suspects, although it is often illuminating and entertaining to observe their reactions.

Yes it is a long post, but there is an awful lot to cover!

Landslide? Resulting in the knife edge majorities which they hold in Congress, and the slim majority in the overall vote? Getting around such slim majorities by sending Congress down if inconvenient opposition emerges (votes which may enforce actions which the executive doesn't like) and partisan reactions like refusing to allow a Congresswomen who has won herr seat in a special election because it may affect the result of a vote which the house is procedurally required to hold in the near future. The Congressional bi partisan effort enacted decades ago almost certainly did not envisage nor authorise masked unidentifiable heavily armed militias, midnight raids on entire appartment blocks, and tossing CS gas out of slow moving unmarked cars at protestors; all practices witnessed recently. Nor did it envisage detainees being removed to detention centres in other states, often at the other end of the country, where they are held incommunicado, where it is made as difficult as possibles for their lawyers to communicate with them to ensure any semblance of due process. It did not envisage masked unidentified men holding sway, dragging spouses from their partners and parents from their children and bundling them into unmarked vehicles. The Congressional bi partisan effort was made in accordance with the provisions of The United States Constitution, provisions which are being regularly ignored and flouted. All basic markers of authoritarian fascism - which is so often hallmarked by twisting legal processes to substantiate the regimes practices. If the reaction to abusing legal processes as is being done so openly and enthusiastically is becoming tiresome, then stop abusing those processes and follow both the spirit and letter of the laws enacted by that Congressional bi partisan effort.

Bit like taking ice cream off a toddler isn't it?🙄

Taking the piss is of course rather a British trait. they lead!

What did you tell her @MalcolmB?

It cant really be ignored that the attack on the Synagogue in Manchester was followed by some quite violent demonstrations (perhaps we should call them what they were - selebrations) in major UK cities including London, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Does the USA have coin operated public toilets? They could come in handy!

Indeed, we have traditions, they have habits: some of them rather unpleasant!😀

Come now @Jingthing, once the Pharmaceutical companies have built their new plants and trained all their new workers (as we are assured they will to avoid the tariffs on imported medicines) we can be absolutely certain that they will, from the goodness of their hearts, dramatically slash prices for their products!

Yes. Since few, if any of us have been in the position of having to make a split second decision on whether to fire or not, in a highly charged and likely very frightening situation such as this, then perhaps it ill behoves us to comment until all the facts are known.

So my "I choked Linda Lovelace" tee shirt is best left at home then?

I take it you didn't like the place much then?

Yes. If you have the intelligence that a vessel or aircraft is carrying drugs either apprehend it on the high seas - and prosecute, or intercept it on arrival, and again prosecute. The rest is the stuff of a Tom Clancy novel.

Let us look at it from another angle. You are Irish, I understand. What does the President of The Republic of Ireland do?

What's not too like!

If you are going to take the accountants "red pencil" approach: What were the targets for the drones? What would have been the economic losses to Poland if those targets had been hit, damaged or destroyed? How much would it have cost to repair, rebuild or replace those targets - bear in mind the need to establish, fund and maintain adequate air defence systems to prevent them being destroyed again. What monetory value does one ascribe to the civilian lives which might have been lost if the drones had reached their targets? Modern warfare is a very, very expensive business, particularly air warfare. But losing a war is probably even more expensive! Well done the Cloggies!

I very much suspect that will be what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens in 2028!

Mind you if you are sick or injured in Germany (and any other of the countries shown in blue on the graph) you get treatment. If you are in Mississippi, (or any of the states shown in red) and cannot afford the exhorbitant health insurance premiums, you die.

Well I dont know @Wingate' there may be something in this "medbed" business. I understand amongst other remarkable achievements they have regrown limbs and brought back to life a rejuvenated JFK! Now there is more concrete visual proof, they may have grown back an ear shot by a high velocity rifle bullet in oh, less than a week! And astonishingly without scarring!

The same might be said about another country very much in the news (as rather underligned by the OP) at the moment!

I agree. I have strong reservations about Farage on several levels, but neither of the established parties, Tory nor Labour offer any hope of real change or reform (NB lower case, not the political party). I had hopes of Kemi Badenoch but sadly I don't think that the rest of the Tories, in Parliament and in the country would allow her to realise her potential. At least Farage and Reform are offering a fresh start, we definitely, desperatley, need it.

Good to see the constabulary have time to stop and appreciate the effort!

Of course, it is a fluid situation, depending very much on who has posted on what subjects. At the time I psited there were four, I have just counted 2 as off 09.53.