The General Political Thread

[StevenChilton]

https://www.politico.eu/article/brexit-britain-small-boring-and-stupid-theresa-may-eu-withdrawal-deal/

Duuring reduced to posting clickbait opinion pieces.

In the real world the latest Q3 economic figures have British GDP growth at 0.4%, which is double that of the Eurozone (0.2%). Q4 figures are also very likely to show British GDP growth well ahead given what's happening in France and Italy.

[Duuring]

How is that related to the article?

[StevenChilton]

How is that related to the article?

The article is purely designed to be clickbait for the 'remainer' Twitter circlejerk. It's not a serious analysis.

You can hate on Britain all you like for wanting 'special treatment', but is it actually that special? It's just Britain opting out of things that come along and decides it doesn't want to be involved with. Britain has always met its EU obligations for things it has signed up to.

You know what *is* special treatment? Deciding that you *do* want to be part of these things but demanding special status at the same time. France has consistently done this, far more than any other EU member state, but nobody bats an eyelid because it's France.

[Duuring]

It's the personal observation of a close observer of the whole process and something I recognize quite a lot from my personal interaction with British (but especially English) people in the re-enactment scene. You're free to disagree with it as much as you want.

Deciding that you *do* want to be part of these things but demanding special status at the same time.

Like having the cake and eat it too? Then again, we actually don't know what Britain wants except things it won't get and has been told it won't get.

[William]

Kosovo now declaring it has an army. I wonder if Serbia will dunk on them and we get another Balkan conflict or if it's more saber rattling.

Who can say where the road goes, where the day flows, only time

[StevenChilton]

It's the personal observation of a close observer of the whole process and something I recognize quite a lot from my personal interaction with British (but especially English) people in the re-enactment scene. You're free to disagree with it as much as you want.

He's an activist-journalist who describes his job at Politico, I shit you not, as "...getting the EU sexy and make people feel attracted to it".
https://www.vinces.es/a-profile-of-politicos-ryan-heath/

That's fine. Before he went into journalism he spent 7 years working in the EU Commission, and to get a job there you have to demonstrate you are pro-EU. But do you really think he'd say anything different?

I'm not sure you'll find many people in Britain, beyond a few fringe figures, who voted for Brexit because of imperial nostalgia or whatever. It's mainly about national sovereignty and anti-elitism. Some local issues, e.g. fishing in coastal communities, probably drove the 'Leave' result too.

[Duuring]

Again, I don't see how that's relevant to the article and its message (Which is not that people voted for Brexit because of nostalgia, by the way). Again, as I said, you can disagree with as much as you want as it's pretty clearly an opinion-article.

New poll.

[DaMonkey]

From an outsider's perspective, the whole things looks like a charade.

[Duuring]

It's quite hard to argue that given "Brexit is the story of a proud former imperial power undergoing a mid-life crisis." is included the opening establishing paragraphs of the article - at the very least it's heavily implied.

I disagree.

in order to sway the opinions of true 'neutrals'.

Whose opinion needs swaying? I thought Brexit was a done deal?

[UniversitasMetal]

No wall.

No immigration reform.

No executive action against the treasonous Silicon Valley censors.

But at least I’m getting back a few extra bucks from my tax return this year!

[Piercee]

All the smart ones already knew he was a shill already anyways.

[Suns]

All the smart ones already knew he was a shill already anyways.

[William]

Looking at the 2016 election in hindsight, it was basically the lesser of two evils for most voters.

I will admit I wasn't that informed on many issues in 2016, but after having done presentations on the U.S. debt, Trump is appalling. He increasingly calls for massive pushes in deficit spending, only furthering our debt and fall. It's disappointing really because he cut a few pieces out of the tiny slices of the pie (will show under), but increased military. He's a disgrace to conservative spending and the idea that Republicans are fiscally conservative. It's the one thing I will give Bill Clinton credit for: He actually balanced the budget in his administration.

Defense spending was increased and this was 'justified' by cutting the little, rather insignificant, small pieces of the pie

[close]

It would appear the only logical solution is to attack our debt holders and make some new colonial possessions to subsidize the debt with more income. China seems to be doing it pretty well

[Riddlez]

Cutting back on Defense would go a long way.

I never thought I'd ever say it. But Defense is really one of the very few areas where money is better spent elsewhere. The U.S. is on the brink of becoming a third-world coutnry. Maternity deaths are too high, children deaths are too high.

Within the next 10-20 years the entire country's infrastructure will decline immensely because of lack of proper replacement and maintenance of bridges and railroads.
Basic access to healthcare is still shit, especially if you consider other Western countries.

Something with taxes, as in raising them, may go a long way. Sorry guys the issues in your country are mounting so fast y'all need some socialism.

[StevenChilton]

Meh, empires rise and fall. If the Americans were too foolish to avoid the biggest contributing factor to imperial decline, namely military over-extension, then that's their problem. Does nobody in Washington read history books?

I guess it kinda sucks for us since China will soon be the preeminent global power, and Xi Jingping has recently appointed himself as General Secretary for life so we're back to the old days of lifelong communist dictators. Best case scenario is we have a multilateral world with other powers (US/EU/CANZUK/India) that can balance them out.