Facebook bans ‘Devil’s Dyke’ after branding it hate speech
Sorry, in today’s slightly dismal world, that article is just too funny not to share.
I guess photos of northern British countryside will now be expunged from Assbook, in case our thousands of miles of “drystane dykes” give offence to Californicants. 
Reminds me rather of this:
We can always learn from history .
UK and France let Hitler invade Praha but declared war for Warsaw .
Not because Warsaw is a finer town but because sooner or later you react or submit .
So if Russia invade Latvia western leaders will decide if Riga is the new Praha or the new Warsaw but I’m pretty sure there wil be a new Warsaw somewhere .
If China invade Taiwan Taiwan will fight for his life , the US will fight to be the world superpower, what UE will fight for ?
Or maybe Taiwan is the new Praha, or Warsaw 
skydriller wrote:
It indeed says that later there was agreement to “bring spending up to 2% of GDP”
As I understand that was agreed long before Trump came into the picture.
Trump had very few ideas of his own, he adopted and adapted what the right in the US had been saying for decades to portray himself as the big saviour. That worked quite well if you think about it. He got the presidency and to this day he has a large number of quite vocal followers.
I remember the issues put on the table by the Tea Party after Obama’s election.
- Shut out illegal immigrants, primarily from Mexico
- Leave the UN, NATO, WHO, (name any international organisation, which they think of as a waste of space and money)
- Go against China and aim for a balanced trade between the two, if necessary by tarifs.
- Fight the Left, the Democrats are the enemy, the press (save Fox and similar) are the enemy, e.t.c.
- ban abortion
and so on.
Sounds familiar? Well Trump appears to have listened to the people who promoted these ideas. Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, Breitbart, e.t.c. and figured out, hey, there are a lot of very dissatisfied people out there whom I can easily win over by addressing their concerns and taking them on board as an electoral platform.
Well it worked. Lots and lots of people were more than ready for someone like him who was more flamboyant, more populist and in terms of publicity cleverer than his then big opponent, Ted Cruz, who btw is far from off the plattform. He, imho, is a sight more dangerous than Trump ever was or will be. As for how much of it were really Trumps personal goals as well and he really wanted or believed himself only he knows, but in general, it was a vehicle to put him where he wanted to be: in power. It was almost never about political goals, it was about himself, finding a platform which would keep him there. And he darn nearly got a 2nd term and still might.
It will be very interesting what will happen now. Trump clearly is not done and won’t be, even if he is impeached and banned from any further office. Unless he is put out of circulation by locking him up, he will be back on the political scene pretty qickly and IMHO the gloating in the press that he is “all alone” and has no more supporters is a huge mistake.
What will also be interesting how much of what Trump initiated, say with China and also other things, Biden will keep going. It looks like that the China politics might well be continued (which is not a bad thing imho) as well as some other stuff he or other center politicians would never have touched but maybe now that someone made his hands dirty and paid the price, are convenient to pursue. Where I am a bit critical of Bidens first days was the flood of EO’s he posted: This is not really a step towards unity but very much in the face of the GOP and gives a great “told you so” for his opponents to expolit. It will be interesting to see where this goes.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
the gloating in the press that he is “all alone” and has no more supporters is a huge mistake.
That’s not what I read in the press. Quite on the contrary. The question is more if he and his supporters will keep control of the republicans or if they will be outmanoeuvred and start a new party.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Where I am a bit critical of Bidens first days was the flood of EO’s he posted: This is not really a step towards unity but very much in the face of the GOP and gives a great “told you so” for his opponents to expolit. It will be interesting to see where this goes.
And they are right: every one of the executive orders is intended to solidify Democrat power, and nothing else. Unity is ummm, not exactly their primary objective.
The ridiculous vilification of Trump is going to look increasingly silly as time goes on. Americans are watching calmly, as they generally do
The best case is Federal power being divided again ASAP, perhaps in the next Congress. For now the Supreme Court may have occasion to refer the Federal Government back to limits on their Constitutional power occasionally as it buys votes with borrowed money, accumulates unprecedented debt for future generations and promotes inflation that when it eventually comes will remove the savings of those who actually work and save.
Airborne_Again wrote:
That’s not what I read in the press. Quite on the contrary. The question is more if he and his supporters will keep control of the republicans or if they will be outmanoeuvred and start a new party.
Good that your press then is not jumping on that bandwagon because as I said, those who say so are quite mistaken and I think most of it is wishful thinking.
Silvaire wrote:
Unity is ummm, not exactly their primary objective.
If that be the case then we will see another ping pong maneuver in 4 years when the WH gets taken back by the GOP and so on.
Silvaire wrote:
The ridiculous vilification of Trump is going to look increasingly silly as time goes on.
Before that it was Obama befor that GWB. The vilification of sitting presidents has to stop if the Union has any wish to regain a strenght as a nation. The way it’s now, we may well see a jo-jo kind of politics in which every 4 years a new administration spends 4 years to undo what the previous one has done. America won’t get anywhere like this.
Silvaire wrote:
Americans are watching calmly, as they generally do
Well, not many of my American friends do. They are polarized as much as I’ve ever seen. Some even go as far as to (again) suggest secession of several states with Texas in the lead. I know it’s frustrated b.s. but the thought alone is not good for any nation, let alone a super power.
The question will be, having seen what we have seen, will Trump be able to keep the GOP to support him or not. I suppose we will know that quite soon, if the impeachment goes through and he is banned from further office, it will be difficult for him to stage a comeback to a 2nd term. Also, if the GOP is split into two fractions or even two parties, I suppose we’d see a democrat WH and congress for quite a while.
For me, the key is indeed who is able if not to unify then at least to get the two big parties to agree that the other are Americans as well and to be able to work as one nation again, not as a nation in a so far cold civil war, where both parties regard the other as the enemy. In the long run, that might be the end of the American experiment, as one of my friends has put it.
