When I refer to them being power starved, an individual of this calibre could be the president of the free world and the held power is still not enough.
Yes, the Guardian seems to be in itâs last throes, and I feel that it has devolved into a shrieking hyena of the left, catering more and more to the perma-rage brigade much akin to CNN and find itâs one-sidedness as opposed to media minus agenda gaining more traction. Itâs sad, as it was always and probably still is, my go-to.
Thereâs very few old-school republicans whose extreme idealism of youth, didnât soften with age. Perhaps you could count Colm Murphy, McKevitt, Mick Hegarty (who was an old housemate of mine) amongst the few that didnât. Many involved in the struggle flirted with the ideas of socialism and communism whilst reading Marx, but usually in a âtake what you need, and leave the restâ attitude to forging their own ideas of what system they would prefer to have in Ireland. The vast majority of republicans, eventually chose democracy.
Joe Biden may have been all you accuse him of, but itâs quite obvious if he was that he has evolved and changed like almost all humans beings do along their journeys.
I would qualify for both of the above also and have spent the guts of the last decade intensively helping to rehabilitate addicts, so I would never disregard him as a result of an illness that he has overcome.
What Iâm saying is, some humans whether their minds are damaged by addiction or suffering from long term mental illness may not be fit for high office, like the presidency of the united states with control of the second largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world, if they canât differentiate the true from the false.
How exactly? Himself, clinton, obama etc all held virws a decade or so ago that they now decry as far rightâŚevolution or opportunism?
If biden is responsible for the us policy in ukraine then heâs a complete psychopath
No politician is infallible, and it would be unrealistic for anyone to expect someone to be so. Every U.S. politician has spotty voting records, which often comes back to haunt them when running for VP or President. What I try and look at or for is motive, and character. Iâm no Biden fanboy, but itâs easy to see that having a convicted sex offender as the leader of the free world, is most likely lacking in the base character required for office, and not having changed too much if his 'grab âem by the pussyâ statement is anything to go by.
Thereâs no perfect response to any crisis. Weâve seen that with different countries and their reaction to Covid. These politicians surround themselves with usually qualified experts, take their opinions onboard and make a decision based on that. I feel that abandoning Ukraine would have been tragic. We seen what happened with Clintonâs delay in intervening in Bosnia and I have no doubt that the Dems are haunted by that. Nonsense spouted by Ramaswamy indicating heâd âgiveâ Russia parts of Ukraine to stop the war as if Ukraine was an american territory. He suggested heâd do the same with Taiwan and China. Trump claims heâd have the Russia-Ukraine war stopped in 24hrs, but his domestic followers arenât worldly enough to realise the invasion occured two years prior to his election and he had 4yrs of 24hr windows to fix it and didnât.
Tragic? Us foreign policy has been to stir up trouble, squander the lives of countless innocent civilians and soldiers and exploit the wreckage, all for profit and slight or nonexistent geopolitical advantage. Rinse and repeat.
Theyâve even said it out lout about ukraine, repeatedlyâŚ
I wholeheartedly agree. I often refer to the U.S. as the âBad Lieutenantâ of this world. A good policeman, turned vigilante, gone bad. Vietnam, Central America, the Middle East and countless other grossly unjustified incursions and their reprehensible conduct to boot. Iâm a fierce anti-colonialist and that is largely what the U.S. has sunk to in the last five decades or more. Glorified looters.
However, Ukraine were not helped by their meddling, but I sense that Putin was going to invade anyway. The americans helped justify that. That doesnât mean that we in Europe or the U.S. should sit with the popcorn and watch the country get razed to the ground by Putin. I personally believe we should be giving more weapons and training to Ukraine to weaken Russia over time, but acknowledge the financial drain this will have in the long term on the countries allied to assist.
In the long term, I fear a re-run of the fall of the soviet union, where an obscene amount of unneeded weapons entered the black market around the world, resulting in carnage driven by criminals and militias.
This is a great point. Iâve had this conversation vis Canada, where the government is only now owning up to the multi generational harm caused by taking indigenous people and forcing them into residential schools. Horrendous policy, but government policy. But in Ireland people were dropping their undesirable children off at the gates of these schools equivalent! There is a huge section of Irish society who are just hard wired to be subservient, to embrace the warm blanket of authoritianism. But not everyone. So to what extent was this true? How many knew and said nothing?
I was wrong about you. Good even handedness in your posts on this thread.
The long term goal of the us has been to weaken russia via Ukraine. Ukrainians were and are irrelevant. The notion of weakening russia should have ended with the fall of the soviet union.
For what its worth putin sought alternatives to the war, even after the invasion. Itâs essentially an American driven project.
The Irish are spineless at the voting booths, and in protesting the injustices of government policies sadly. The politicians are aware of this, and duly exploit it. Itâs one of the main reasons why I choose not to live in Ireland. Itâs deeply embedded in the character of the vast majority.
The village which I grew up in, had a priest who probably was the worst offender after Fr Brendan Smyth. I know a lady, whose nephew was abused by this local priest and with that knowledge, set up a committee that raised âŹ80,000 upon his release from prison to get him back on his feet. I donât think, from discussion with the older generation that there was any adult who didnât strongly suspect or know. The culture of silence was omerta-like, around men of the cloth. One of the worst atrocities associated with the great silence, which may not ever come out is the shuffling of many of these predators to third world countries once the abuse became clear to the diocese heads.
If they can fight a war without putting boots on the ground, they will. The cost of what theyâre paying now is nothing compared to a full-scale invasion, which theyâd never win, if anything in war can be considered winning.
Here here. Look at this website for a tiny microcosm. Posters who donât agree with the doctrine banned for nothing then a succession of others on to clap admins on the back and say well done boss. Exactly the types of people who would turn a blind eye to child sexual abuse, as long as the big house smiled at them.
Thatâs two disgusting examples about the church. I went to mass every Sunday when I was a kid. It was a social gathering more than anything and no one I knew seemed to pay any attention to its rules bar a few elderly curtain twitchers. but when I learned of the abuse that was it, there can hardly be a more evil crime. And it was covered or shipped overseas⌠And yet Irish people knew it was going on but have this self delusion they are rebels with scant regard for authority.
How do Swedes see themselves? It seems the only nation in Europe that can now coldly and honestly admit their flaws is Germany.
Youâve fucking nailed it there
How do Swedes see themselves? It seems the only nation in Europe that can now coldly and honestly admit their flaws is Germany.
I have a mate, also an immigrant who has lived here over 20yrs and he told me early on that his biggest gripe with Sweden and their natives is a complete inability to apologise or accept blame for any wrongs in the past. From my experience here, Iâve witnessed it everywhere. Relationships, customer service, governmentâŚthe list goes on. Itâs weird, when I was used to a chorus of âsorry, sorryâ as Iâd walk down a packed Grafton St. Weâre often apologising where itâs completely unneccessary. The other end of the spectrum. I suppose what Iâm getting at, is I very much doubt theyâll be making a public admission and reparations for assisting the little Austrian.
Most Swedes however, are incredibly socialist minded. They are huge fans of their tax dollars being spent on the less privileged, sick, refugees and social programs. They really for the most part, do see themselves as privileged amongst the world and willing to help out those who are not. The difference between here and Ireland, is that their efficiency in government departments often ensure that itâs money well spent, whereas in Ireland, we could have the oil of Saudi under the sod and we still couldnât fix anything. Of course, itâs worth adding that there is a small section of rural voters who are often proud and vocal racists that disagree with the policies of helping refugees. Some, on all sides call the efforts of the Government, an indirect reparation without an admission of guilt, for their policies in the world war.
Theyâre not perfect, and I generalise a lot or I could go on forever but theyâre zero craic, boring, ultra practical at the expense of passion and an awkward bunch, socially. However, they make great friends, even if it takes a good part of a decade here to usually consider a Swede amongst your friendship circle.
So their definition of winning is spending hundreds of Ukrainian lives to âweakenâ russia. Not win, they know the Ukrainians havenât a chanceâŚbut just to weaken Russia, theoretically? How does this tie in with biden evolving as a person?
The Guardian remains comfortably the best paper of record out there. Itâs not perfect but what is.
CNN is not âleftâ by any reasonable criteria and never has been. Theyâve platformed Nazis FFS sake and have steadily moved in a pro-Trump direction under the ownership of Warner Brothers.
I personally donât see a better alternative. Maybe Iâve a lot more evolving to do myself.
I agree, regarding the guardian on both points.
I watched the Trump town hall live. I was genuinely mortified for CNN. Itâll be interesting to see how theyâll pivot under the fresh stewardship, if at all.
There was a better alternative, one which would have seen russia withdraw, Ukrainian neutrality and autonomy for eastern Ukraine. Joe and boris insisted on slaughter however