The General Political Thread

[Edwin]

Trump re-tweets controversial stuff on Twitter, well f*** me what a surprise. The worst thing is Trump probably won't get re-elected in 2020, and will replaced with an uber-liberal 'anti-Trump' Democrat and I'll hear no end to BBC stories about gender-neutral toilets being installed in the White House or whatever.

It's just another 'outrageous' Tweet that will make his supporters cheer and his critics jeer (it's almost as if this has happened like twenty times before).

Other than the fact that the President of the biggest superpower in the world is an Islamaphobe? That’s pretty huge news. Even the British Primeminister has said he was wrong.

Is it really shocking that the President of the USA - whose country's constitution was built upon beliefs opposite of that of Islam - is against Islam? Also, I could write paragraphs about the incompetence and disastrous ministry of Theresa May. Please don't pretend like a single soul in the universe gives the slightest sh*t what she thinks about anything.

[Toffee]

It’s quite shocking that he would align himself with a far-right group, yes. And Britain is the USAs closest ally. Trump is severing relations quickly.

[Theodin]

It’s quite shocking that he would align himself with a far-right group, yes. And Britain is the USAs closest ally. Trump is severing relations quickly.

As yes, because Tweets dictate foreign policy with the most powerful country in the world 

[Toffee]

It’s quite shocking that he would align himself with a far-right group, yes. And Britain is the USAs closest ally. Trump is severing relations quickly.

As yes, because Tweets dictate foreign policy with the most powerful country in the world 

No they don’t, but a denunciation from 10 Downing Street certainly reflects an attitude towards his actions, wouldn’t you say? The Primeminister is distancing herself from him.

[Conway]

It’s quite shocking that he would align himself with a far-right group, yes. And Britain is the USAs closest ally. Trump is severing relations quickly.

As yes, because Tweets dictate foreign policy with the most powerful country in the world 

To be fair when you're a head of state it should take more thought than simply reading a headline before sharing something. I don't think its to much to ask to at least exercise that amount of competency.

[Karth]

Lol he didn't align himself with anyone, he saw something on his feed and retweeted it, big deal he's obviously not a traditional president.  It's no surprise at all he's anti-Muslim, he made that very clear from day one lmao

[Piercee]

The only head rag I like is the one hanging onto my wall to wipe my sweat off with

[Jakester]

Lol he didn't align himself with anyone, he saw something on his feed and retweeted it, big deal he's obviously not a traditional president.  It's no surprise at all he's anti-Muslim, he made that very clear from day one lmao

+1

Trump shouldn't have surprised anyone so far. People voted for him because they knew his views. This is nothing new to anyone, except for people who just turned and looked the other way any time Trump was mentioned; What he tweets and all that garbage, who should care, unless tweeting is signing something into any official capacity (which it is not) then it shouldn't even matter what he tweets. Hold him accountable for his point of view? Sure, understandable. He ran as a right wing candidate who was publicly "America first" and told his voters that he was going to bring immigration of Muslims and Mexicans down.

[Theodin]

It’s quite shocking that he would align himself with a far-right group, yes. And Britain is the USAs closest ally. Trump is severing relations quickly.

As yes, because Tweets dictate foreign policy with the most powerful country in the world 

No they don’t, but a denunciation from 10 Downing Street certainly reflects an attitude towards his actions, wouldn’t you say? The Primeminister is distancing herself from him.

Meh. The PM already publically distanced herself from Trump; however, like other world leaders who've done this, it's clear that that's mostly to score points from the anti-Trump crowd. I mean, look at the Chinese - they've been wary of Trump from day 1, published statements about his antics, disapproved of him publically, and yet they're investing hundreds of millions of dollars in American energy and deepening military and economic ties.

I'm honestly starting to think Trump tweets controversial shit to distract literally everyone from things. Anyone follow the senate confirmation hearings of Kathleen Hartnett White? No? didn't think so, who needs to know about WH policy advisors when Trump is tweeting something mean

[Toffee]

So basically what you’re telling me is that everything okay because Trump is a gigantic shit stirrer on an international level

[Riddlez]

You guys confuse the workings of international politics with national politics.
International politics is over the top super fucking sensitive. Yes, leaders do give a shit what kund of video you share. Leaders do care if you spell their names correctly.

It affects deals, trade, possible compromises. If an individual representative of government doesn't like you because of what you tweet... Yes, that does affect any deal, however childish that may seem.
Especially Asian countries are good at that shit but Europe,especially south and eastern EU can be a real bitch. And if you want to or not, you'll HAVE to deal with almost all countries.

[Samu]

You guys confuse the workings of international politics with national politics.
International politics is over the top super fucking sensitive. Yes, leaders do give a shit what kund of video you share. Leaders do care if you spell their names correctly.

It affects deals, trade, possible compromises. If an individual representative of government doesn't like you because of what you tweet... Yes, that does affect any deal, however childish that may seem.
Especially Asian countries are good at that shit but Europe,especially south and eastern EU can be a real bitch. And if you want to or not, you'll HAVE to deal with almost all countries.

This is very true

[StevenChilton]

You guys confuse the workings of international politics with national politics.
International politics is over the top super fucking sensitive. Yes, leaders do give a shit what kund of video you share. Leaders do care if you spell their names correctly.

It affects deals, trade, possible compromises. If an individual representative of government doesn't like you because of what you tweet... Yes, that does affect any deal, however childish that may seem.
Especially Asian countries are good at that shit but Europe,especially south and eastern EU can be a real bitch. And if you want to or not, you'll HAVE to deal with almost all countries.

That's not totally correct. Trade deals and that kind of thing take place between lower functionaries and backroom people-Trump/May/Barnier/Juncker/Jinping don't have a clue about modern trade. The only purpose they have is to ultimately set the agenda and the parameters of the talks after taking advice from those same backroom staff. Most of what they do is just for show.

Anyway money talks and politics takes a back seat in 99% of cases. Most European countries claim to like human rights yet that doesn't stop them selling vast quantities of military hardware to Saudi Arabia. Even Sweden does that.

[Riddlez]

You're overgeneralising on the military sales. For starters it are not 'vast quantities' and they certainly do not send quality material to Saudi-Arabia. Most countries aren't even permitting their industries to sell to most middle-eastern countries considering the war SA is waging in Yemen.

And if they send military equipment what they can actually send it 'dumbed down' so much it really doesn't give countries like Saudi Arabia an edge considering what they sell usually only does things that other systems will do just as fine and they'd be able to get their hands on anyway, so it doesn't really matter if it's EU or Russia. And yes, those considerations are political.

To take a small example: Indonesia ordered two sub-destroyer frigates from the Netherlands, from Damen Naval Shipyards, the company that produces Dutch Warships. In cooperation with those, Thales Group basically builds almost all the high-tech radar systems and communications equipment. The ships rank among the top of the world and Thales'  radar systems are arguably the best there are. The rest from the higher-tech electronics in Dutch warships is American.

Now, how much does one think Indonesia actually got out of this? A ship that sails, shoots and communicates, sure. But as soon as the order came through the Dutch government intervened and ordere Damen and Thales to basically remove anything that was quality equipment. For example: they got the Goalkeeper system, as in, the machine gun for it, but the radar they actually got with it was so shit it doesn't even come close to the real deal.

It is these kinds of deals between governments and private companies that are usuall signed into law and policy that make it look like a big deal that Saudi Arabia is buying equipment from European companies (which is hard to stop, actually, I mean, it's still a private company) but really doesn't matter that much because European equipment won't be Tsignificantly better than what other countries will offer, and it will certainly not come close to EU military power.

[StevenChilton]

You're overgeneralising on the military sales. For starters it are not 'vast quantities' and they certainly do not send quality material to Saudi-Arabia. Most countries aren't even permitting their industries to sell to most middle-eastern countries considering the war SA is waging in Yemen.

??
The EU is the world's second largest arms exporter after the USA, and Saudi Arabia is the EU's second largest customer (again after the USA). The Middle East as a region is easily the world's largest importer of arms. To Saudi Arabia alone we're talking billions of Euros worth of orders a year, and I don't know what you mean by 'we don't send them quality material' given they've bought Euro-fighters, missile systems, ships etc. This is the same equipment that France and Britain use (the only two European countries west of Russia that possess a modern military).

It is these kinds of deals between governments and private companies that are usuall signed into law and policy that make it look like a big deal that Saudi Arabia is buying equipment from European companies (which is hard to stop, actually, I mean, it's still a private company) but really doesn't matter that much because European equipment won't be Tsignificantly better than what other countries will offer, and it will certainly not come close to EU military power.

Rubbish, it can be stopped very easily as you need export licenses. Very few countries possess advanced defence industries that sell the full range of modern military hardware. The market is dominated by 6 countries (USA, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China) and political concerns usually preclude buying from the latter two.