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Meanwhile, in a benighted little backwater nation, just off the coast of Europe...

Boris Johnson has this morning finally acknowledged that his position is untenable, and has promised to resign as Prime Minister. I've lost count, but he's probably the last minister remaining, as all the others seem to have resigned their posts already.

However, he says he wants to remain in charge until the autumn (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62064789). Given his Trumpish personality and history, will he actually leave voluntarily later this year, or is he planning to use the next few months to rile up his base of racists, xenophobes and other assorted bigots and half-wits, and turn them into his own private militia, ready to storm the Capitol parliament just after Christmas (say, Jan 6th?) and 'take back control'?

Isn't November 5th the traditional date of doing bad things to the parliament?

You have a point. If Johnson can drag this thing out for another couple of years, he can time his assault on democracy to coincide with the one Trump has scheduled for November 5th 2024.

Trump Lite


Except that Trump Heavy is coming in 2024, but maybe sooner.



8)

Methane is lighter than air. But I suppose it depends on what he's eaten, there's probably some other stuff mixed in there.




Sooner, really? Do you have news on the kraken? I can't wait*.






*I mean, I can wait, but I've been waiting so long already, and absolutely nothing has happened.

The final analysis on the Kraken is this. It seems that Trump was shocked at the unexpected amount of Dem and other forceful evil and corruption in the election. He actually woke up to just how deeply rooted the Deep State is in its corruption. So...

He backed off to study and learn, and to prepare his war against evil for 2024... and to fight in other ways. But will he even run in 2024? After all, he is realizing that general old age is attacking him, if in ways different than the way it's attacking Biden, still, it is attacking him.

If Trump doesn't run, who will the Reps bring in? Biden won't run, so who will the Dems bring in? I don't see any big talk about anybody other than Trump. This doesn't mean that the Dems don't have a plan. After all, out of nowhere they pushed Obama into office back then.

If Trump doesn't run, I hope they get someone who is far more expert and destroying the Deep State than Trump was. Or, if he runs, I hope he has learned how to destroy the Deep State for good this time.

8)

The blonde blowhard's resignation comes as no solace for me.  He'll be replaced with someone equally as useless, greedy and corrupt.  There isn't a single front-bench Tory that I would feel comfortable with in charge of the UK.  Britain is destined to be a run-down nation governed by thieving kleptocrats because the voting public are absolute fucking morons.  Scotland and Wales, if they have any sense, should demand independence as soon as they possibly can.  It's only going to get worse. 

Yes, I agree completely. Except I might replace "single front-bench Tory" with "single Tory".

The UK have stronger political systems than the US. They have a workable checks and balance institutions that ensure that the Prime Ministers doesn't act like Emperors. And I think British politicians are morally stable than their US counterparts. In few days, we have seen almost the entire cabinet members (more than 50 ministers) resign. But in the face of his grievous political sins, Donald Trump was still surrounded by sycophants that supported and treated him like an emperor. They defended his actions and tagged every form of criticism as political witch-hunting. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has lost the confidence of his strong supporters, hence he would leave immediately his successor is chosen.

Wait till you realize that most politicians are rotten to the core. Boris Johnson wasn't terrible. Conservatives are already perceived as morally corrupt therefore worthy of contemptuous attacks so once you peel that notion off of him, he isn't like Trump at all. Trump isn't even a conservative, he just pretends to be one.

Boris Johnson could be pretending too, he might be a better actor  ;D

You're definitely giving them too much credit.  They're merely bowing to public perception.  Every single MP who has just resigned publicly supported Johnson up until that moment.  It's not like they suddenly grew a conscience.  They simply realised Johnson was doing too much damage to their chances at the next election.  They aren't resigning because they disagree with anything Johnson has done.  They're resigning because the court of public opinion won't let Johnson get away with it anymore and these MPs don't want to be seen as being associated with that.  They're just shallow opportunists.  Nothing more.

No he's not planing anything like that. Firstly he dosen't have that pull that Trump had, that cult of personality. Secondly, the only ones the public (for some reason) likes over there are some of the royal familly, but besides that, the majority of the politicians really don't have that strong of a support.

I blame this largely on his imposing crazy covid policies that are not rooted in science. They are so unrooted in science, that he displayed that the restrictions were worthless by repeatedly violated these policies.

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The UK political system seems to be fairly strange. Perhaps the July 4th committee in the UK can learn something from the January 6th committee in the US, and vice versa.

It has a lot in common with other capitalist democracies, in that the capitalist element invariably subverts the democracy element. Money is a synonym for (and often a quantification of) power, and those with money are able to manipulate the electorate, often through their friends in the media.

One element that makes the UK worse than many similar nations is that we never had a French-style revolution, we still have a monarch, lords and ladies, barons, "knights", etc. The Conservative part is the party of old money, the old boys club who have trodden the same path from Eton school to a PPE degree at Oxbridge and then into politics. Then throw in a few women and non-white faces as a superficial concession to modernity. Boris Johnson is the embodiment of a tradition going back centuries, the talentless, arrogant, entitled rich boy to whom the rules that everyone else has to live by simply don't apply.

ive never supported the conservatives however this silly drama about throwing out a PM over a lie about a social event does not even come close to comparison to bombing civilians or threatening nuclear war in the past.

i find it funny how british ministers stood back and said "we dont think putin is bad enough for us to send troops in and take him off his seat. but boris had a few drinkies with his (non-risk) work bubble colleagues, he needs to go"

that said. yes boris lied. and someone with his wealth and position should have at best/worse just said "F*CK it, yea i had a party, my staff needed it after 2 years of keeping this country alive, ill own up, ill pay the fines 10x over and even donate to many charities, now lets move on and do the job of politics" right from the start

instead he lied, and lied and lied hiding the parties denying his involvement and trying his damned hardest to not pay a fine, which to him is less than a parking ticket

.
the things i despise is all the silly pokes of "oh you dont comb your hair, must mean your not organised, you should step down"
or
"you are not wearing the traditional blue tie, you must step down"
"your too old..." "your too young.. " "your to blonde..."
you know the silly petty reasons they try to get someone thrown out.

yes he lied. but he never done putin-esq level of tyranny. he didnt even tell people to drink bleach and swallow light bulbs or go invade parliament and trash things..
so i see it as petty lies in comparison to the real world events playing out.

a 'loss of confidence' is a bubble in an ocean compared to tyrannical dictators making people literally fear for their lives.

yes he made the no party rule so he should be the top guy enforcing the rule not the one breaking the rule.
but if rules were to be broken. a politician should have the confidence and the determination to stand by his actions. own up and pay the penalty. no lies, no evasion. just confidence. reasoning and explanation and paying the penalty

i cannot see anyone having what i would consider the balls to do the job properly. they are all stupid and selfish with their own priorities and side businesses they care about more..

take rishi sunak.. when treasurer (AKA taxman #1). he should have been the tax enforcer. yet. he let his own wife evade billions in taxes, and then said that there are not even just a couple billions in the treasury to uplift the poorest peoples income by £20 a week.. hypocrite
lets his wife keep billions but doesnt think the treasury can cope with letting millions have just £20

Perhaps they have already learned something from the J6 committee.  Let a sociopath in power get away with too much and eventually he will try and steal your democracy.


Party gate is old news, he survived it.


fyp

There is no evidence that Johnson is going to try to "steal" democracy.

Johnson campaigned as being a conservative, but when he governed, he was governing from the left.

This is basically the same as Biden -- he campaigned as being a moderate, but has governed from the far, radical left.

Looks like Scholz is next (https://m.tagesspiegel.de/politik/mehrere-frauen-betroffen-k-o-tropfen-attacke-auf-spd-fest-berliner-polizei-ermittelt-gegen-unbekannt/28493038.html).

LOLWHUT?

If Boris Johnson is left-wing, then I'm the fucking Intergalactic Space Pope.  I'm fairly sure you're being unintentionally hilarious, but just no. 

Boris Johnson is continuing the tory trend of asset-stripping public services to sell to private companies.  He believes in private health insurance rather than an NHS which is free at the point of need.  His primary interest in taking the UK out of the European Union is slashing consumer protections, environmental protections and workers rights in order to benefit private companies. 

You know he put into motion a plan to ship refugees to Rwanda, right?

i think you are confusing that with cameron and May.
have you seen how much boris has thrown into the NHS in the last 2 years after a decade of stripping during the cameron/May era

boris was a brexiteer whilst cameron and May were a remainer.
so you might want to check out who was on which side of the left right divide. in regards to brexit

either way.. its much like previous decade.. blair was a tory in labour clothing and boris was a tory in tory clothing but pandering to the labour people for extra votes by going against his own at times

He's just an arrogant, entitled opportunist, with no deep-seated ideological views either way. It's notable that when he ran London as mayor, he took great pains to position himself as a lot more liberal and cosmopolitan than the traditional Tory... purely because that's what the voters wanted.

And when positioning himself for the leadership of the Tory party, in the Brexit referendum, he came out as "leave" and spearheaded that campaign as a far-right foreigner-hatin' freedom-lovin' union-flag-wavin' racist xenophobe... because he saw that it would be popular, and that was the way the votes were going.

The Tories have been threatening to tear themselves apart over Europe for a generation. I don't think we can argue that a man who takes control of the right-wing of a right-wing party, and then implements a hard-right Brexit can really be governing from the left. His policies were motivated entirely by self-interest, and in general achieved by harnessing the support of the far right.

"Well, look, I'm - I'm very pro-choice,"
-Trump 1999

“In many cases, I probably identify more as Democrat”
-Trump 2004

“Hillary’s always surrounded herself with very good people. I think Hillary would do a good job,”
-Trump 2007

I think that demagogues such as Trump and Johnson can get away with such political shape-shifting for the same reason that they can get away with such frequent and quite blatant lying. Of course politicians have always lied, but in the past they've always tried to cover it up ("I did not have sexual relations with that woman"), but the new populist politican just doesn't care that everyone knows they're lying, and it doesn't weaken them in the way it did with, say, Clinton, it actually strengthens them as it helps to build up their carefully-crafted persona as the embattled outspoken outsider railing against the corrupt establishment. And this is all possible because the populists don't appeal to reason, using logical arguments, they instead appeal directly to emotion and the carefully curated prejudices that have been instilled in large sections of the populace. The opposition don't seem to have understood yet that when for example Trump has a rant about Mexicans, it's impossible to counter that by saying "well, actually Mexican immigrants contribute x to the economy, provide vital labour force in y industry, etc". Same reason that when I use facts and logic in a discussion with BADecker, it has no effect.

The problem is that we are talking different points. You are talking politics in general. And that is great. But the point is that any good thing that Trump said, he backed it up with the fact of doing it.

But take a look at Biden's politics... destroying the economies of many friendly nations, destroying the livelihood of the peoples of many friendly nations, transferring funds to a little, nothing-country to enrich himself and his political buddies, along with the nation that he claims to be fighting.

To be fair, you can't do things two ways. Possibly if Trump was active President, these same things might be happening, and maybe worse. Nobody knows.

But the point is, things are bad, and it's Biden and his regime that are responsible.

8)

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3559279-trump-says-hes-made-up-his-mind-about-2024-big-decision-is-if-announcement-is-before-or-after-midterms/

Trump will run again, it is all but confirmed.

Geriatric vs. geriatric, round 2, except I'm not sure Biden will run again so perhaps an asterisk marked under the democratic nominee.

American conservatives, specifically the neocons have to deal with this mindless fool running over strict constitutional conservatives that would have run in 2024. Trump is a wrecking ball and brings the worst out of people so it's best that some politicians sit this one out and hope for 2028.

Trump is less damaging than the progressive fascists that are gaining power in the democratic party, but he is also the person with the biggest amount of liability.

Probably time to find another buzz word to use now that we know Trump is literally a fascist.

Johnson was trying to raise taxes on corporations, raised the payroll tax, had a "net zero" emissions goals for England, in addition to crazy covid policies, among other things.

None of the above is what voters voted for, nor is what he campaigned on.

You’re thoughts are tenable cause one can observe the similarities in policies, rhetorics in both the failed rulers. Who knows? He may very well have some slick move up his sleeve as I won’t even be surprised if he did some last drastic move to extend his stay at no 10

He's seems really bad at it considering he isn't in office anymore. Who would've known.

Not all conservatives come up ridiculous ways to interpret what Scientists around the world are claiming so that it benefits them personally like they do with the bible.  Tackling the climate change problem translates to more stability long-term, which, is actually a conservative value.

https://www.conservatives.com/our-plan

Democracy is a great idea, and elections every few years are also a good idea. But one problem with the way modern western democracies are set up is that it fosters short-termist thinking. Looking at climate change, even if we ignore the might and influence of the oil industry, the fact remains that fixing the climate involves sacrifices now in exchange for a reward in the future. Most governments - and particularly a Tory government - will shy away from implementing any policy that could make themselves look bad and their (unknown) successors look good. I assume at some point the climate issue will become so overwhelming that the spell might be broken and serious action might be taken, but by then a lot of damage will have been done. Governments will respond reactively (when they have to), rather than proactively (when they should). Sadly, it's a situation where this comic is relevant yet again.

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/scientific_briefing.png
https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/scientific_briefing.png

But the really sad, comical thing is something that you and most Americans don't realize any longer. That America is a Republic that houses a partial Democracy for a government. Any time people want to get rid of the government - and rather easily - they can exercise their Republic parts. Lot's of people are doing this, like in bars that can allow smoking because they are clubs, and nudist camps because they are clubs, and just about anything that you want if you do it through club formation.

8)

The climate is in fact changing over the long term, but that doesn't mean that it is being caused by humans, that there is anything that humans can do to stop/reverse it, nor that it will result in harm to the ability to inhabit the planet. There have been multiple cycles of climate over long periods of time, for example, many years ago, there was the ice age.

Measures to "fight" climate change are really a means to make the West weaker economically and militarily compared to China.

Yes, this is the ridiculous view that many Republicans have and is in direct conflict with the view of the overwhelming majority of the most qualified Scientists around the world that I was referring to.

It is caused by humans.
It will result in harm to the ability to inhabit the planet.
There is lots humans can do to make it less bad.

Here's a list of 200 international Scientific Organizations that hold the position that Climate Change has been caused by human action.
https://www.opr.ca.gov/facts/list-of-scientific-organizations.html

Here's the evidence explained:
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/



And, by the way, China has taken big steps to meet their goal of being carbon neutral by 2060 (same as Russia, and just 10 years after lefty boris promised) and has been the biggest investor in renewable energy for almost 10 years now.

Because the Chinese government should be trusted by default. In the meantime, China will continue to build additional coal power plants and will take other measures to increase its carbon emissions.

In the West, governments are actually taking steps to becoming less energy independent.

The climate is changing over the short term, and this is caused by humans. It certainly affects our ability to inhabit parts of the planet. It continues to amaze and appal me so how many ordinary people of a generally "right-wing" political leaning will happily lap up whatever lies they are fed by the oil industry and their stooges in government* rather than accept incontrovertible fact, simply because they don't want to be seen to identify with what they perceive as a "leftie" cause. The climate crisis is not a cover for some ideological push for a big state, or a geographical analogue of BLM, or anything like that. It should transcend politics, we all share the same planet, FFS, and everyone will be affected, even if they aren't already.

I write this on a Sunday evening. In my country, we're expecting to break our national temperature record tomorrow or Tuesday. Other parts of the world are literally on fire. 400 million people in China inhabit a place that may soon, for parts of the year, have such a high temperature that humans simply cannot survive there (https://news.mit.edu/2018/china-could-face-deadly-heat-waves-due-climate-change-0731).




* ... and cigarettes don't cause cancer, right?  ::)

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Neither China nor the West is doing anything like enough. It's mainly political greenwashing, and half-hearted commitments to go to net zero by 2050, which will of course be far too late. Hence my sharing that xkcd strip again.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigns (https://www.corriere.it/politica/diretta-live/22_luglio_21/crisi-governo-draghi-diretta-b2ce4c64-08b8-11ed-ba42-106d8f7128de.shtml).