Originally posted by Dogg Thang
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Guinness. -
All this is on the immediate back of a 30 day delay on the tariffs for Canada and Mexico
A pattern is emerging where the targetted countries bend the knee to Trump without anything of meaning actually having changed - simply the perception given that Trump won
Also that each time this stuff lands, Musk's DOGE illegality moves get buried under it in the news:
"NEW: DOGE has requested and is being granted “access to all SBA systems,” per an email sent to Small Business Admin employees today. Edward Coristine, a DOGE official, held a call with SBA staff detailing level of access they wanted, including HR, contract and payment systems"
"Employees were told this access was cleared, but weren’t told by whom, and that access needed to granted in a very short time frame to Coristine and Donald Park, who appears to be an adviser to DOGE"
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Nothing is ever free in the US, is it?Lie with passion and be forever damned...Comment
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It can't get worse in Week 3 right?.... Right?...Comment
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An El Salvador prison is a death sentence for basically anyone, so errrrm, right.Originally posted by Neon Ignition View PostComment
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US Postal Service has stopped accepting inbound packets from China and Hong Kong immediately and until further notice.
Whether this is the result of tariffs or an attempt fully privatise/completely replace the service is a good guess.Comment
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Trump wants to establish a sovereign wealth fund for the government to buy TikTok.
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The problem is if Reform win the next election, they're already firm that they want to dismantle the NHS and move to American-style healthcare. And I just feel they're gonna win. They're going to tell people they'll reduce taxes by getting rid of "that awful NHS" and people are gonna vote for them, because people, on the whole, are morons.Originally posted by MartyG View PostComment
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I very much doubt it - if there's one thing the public holds in high-esteem it's the NHS - people were banging pots outside their front door for them, it touches everyone's lives.
I doubt even Reform would try that tack as it's a losing trajectory.Last edited by MartyG; 05-02-2025, 08:18.Comment
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I can see it to an extent but because we're so far out from the next election I imagine there'll be plenty of Reform related scandal to drag them back and purely on that point alone, as soon as a General Election rears its head any stance of scrapping the NHS is going to see them battered - they're effectively openly handing the Tories a starting point for a comeback on that front.Originally posted by Asura View Post
If things continue in the direction they're screaming toward at the moment, even if Labour gets into the last year or so of power looking to be on a knifes edge, it could be a bold but potentially sound move to steal votes back by breaking free of the current political mindset and taking a firm Rejoin stance. It would raise the roof of staunch Brexiters but having the Tories help split that vote line could leverage them back up. I imagine much of the Labours fifth year will be a reaction to whatever happens in Trumps fourth year.Comment
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Yeah, but they did this after they voted for the Tories in 2019, who were bringing in a health secretary who had, previously, written a book on how to dismantle the NHS.Originally posted by MartyG View Post
I do feel that Labour will need to plant a flag in a major, perhaps-unattainable-but-the-struggle-has-merit goal. Right now they're pragmatic, and that's great, to have grown-ups in charge. For instance, they've deported a huge number of people since coming to power by fixing some of the apparatus that the Tories dismantled, which you think the Reform people would be all-for, but the press is against them as it isn't immediate or dramatic enough for the GBeebies crowd.If things continue in the direction they're screaming toward at the moment, even if Labour gets into the last year or so of power looking to be on a knifes edge, it could be a bold but potentially sound move to steal votes back by breaking free of the current political mindset and taking a firm Rejoin stance. It would raise the roof of staunch Brexiters but having the Tories help split that vote line could leverage them back up. I imagine much of the Labours fifth year will be a reaction to whatever happens in Trumps fourth year.
I also feel there are those in the country who are pushing us further in that Reform direction, not even just those who will vote for them. Stories like that schoolteacher who's still in hiding over "blasphemy", in our country, which doesn't have blasphemy laws, are really stoking this. I'm worried that in the near future there's going to be a violent veer to the right.
We're at a weird crossroads.
Most policies that are considered "far-right" are, in many cases, unempathetic, in others downright evil. However, like just about any political idea, you can reshape it into something good. Like the far-right want to deport everyone "forrin", etc., while if you hack away at that, you can draw out of it that having a well-developed immigration apparatus is a good thing. Islamophobia is bad, but clarifying (and protecting) the rules over freedom of expression for people like teachers is arguably good.
I feel Labour may need to broach some conversations that will be very difficult, but maybe it's needed, to prevent that massive slide to the right?Last edited by Asura; 05-02-2025, 08:48.Comment
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And yet the Tories didn't dismantle it, because they knew it would be a vote losing road, and Johnson himself was not a supporter of dismantling the NHS.
People are not blind to the horror stories of the private health care system in US, and polling is very consistent on how the public views the NHS, if a key policy of your political party is getting rid of it, you are not going to win a GE in the UK.Last edited by MartyG; 05-02-2025, 09:23.Comment
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I personally believe they casually sabotaged it, though. You're absolutely right in that no-one's going to win an election by telling people they want to dismantle the NHS, but I felt the goal of successive Tory governments was to underfund it, privatise bits of it, gradually make it worse and worse until such time the public begged them to get rid of it.Originally posted by MartyG View Post
I feel the COVID pandemic drove a bus through those plans, but that's what I feel the plan was.Comment
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