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27
DnD Central / Re: Scottish Nationalist ignorance
The signs are, from the SNP Collective, that Sturgeon will call for a new Referendum the day after the UK invokes Clause 50. It may be bluff on Sturgeon's part but that is what NP Members are trumpeting.

Recently she demanded of Theresa May that Scotland conducts its own negotiation with the EU, which May has refused because it is a UK responsibility. She will argue that Scotland should leave the UK during the period of 2 years that the Negotiation may take and thus have a "shoe-in" for EU Membership. She's wrong on several counts of course, but some are gullible enough to fall for the argument. .... and that includes Sturgeon herself.

However I think she has now put herself and her party in a lose/lose situation but she has not yet realised it.
28
DnD Central / Re: NATO nonsense
Quote from: rjhowie on
What a bunch of cold war creation NATO is. It should have been got rid of when the Warsaw Pact lot went. Now troops funnelled into Poland and the Baltic States. When did Russia indicate it wanted to invade the Baltics or Poland? And that clown who is the person in charge of NATO was on television saying how united everyone was. Yet the President of France said publicly that there is no problem with Putin or Russia re France. Greece and Italy said similar - so much for the so-called unity. And the President of the USA came on moaning about how most of the NATO members are NOT spending 2% of their GDP on military.
NATO started in 1949, responding to the Cold War which started in 1947.
You will find some discussion about the cause of the Cold war here

Regarding yor remarks about Crimea, you seem to forget that Russia was a signatory to the treaty which guaranteed the territorial integrity of the Ukraine, incorporating the Crimea within it. Russia invaded the Ukraine and annexed the Crimea, not Europe, not the USA.

Then there's is the little matters of the shooting down of that airliner, the Cuban missile affair, the murders on British soil  committed/facilitated and covered up by Russia, all the way back to Crabb.

Maybe you care for a nice cup of Polonium Tea, but I don't.

29
DnD Central / Re: NATO nonsense
Quote from: Frenzie on
Quote from: string on
I do sympathise, however, with US annoyance that Europe is getting their defence on the cheap, It was understandable in the '50s and maybe the '60s but not now.
I don't. The disproportional US defense spending on which we supposedly "free-ride" is primarily related to US interests elsewhere in the world. A good tear-down of that old canard (which may have had some relevance a decade ago) by a French diplomat can be found here. One of the most important points isn't even brought up until the very end.
Quote
Beyond the sphere of military affairs, the significant diplomatic achievements that Europeans and Americans have brought about together in the past year alone also refute the cliché of the European free-rider. The Iran deal struck in July 2015 was the product of diplomatic heavy lifting on the part of the United States as well as the European Union. Washington pushed Europeans to put harsh sanctions on Iran, but the United States itself had little leverage on the Iranian economy, having had virtually no trade with the country since 1979. In many ways, it was the European choice to back sanctions that made them so effective—and it was the Europeans who bore many of the costs. Likewise, the sanctions on Russia that helped Germany and France broker an imperfect ceasefire in Ukraine in 2015 are economically more painful for Europeans than for U.S. companies. The Obama administration has, de facto, relied on its European allies to handle the crisis created by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and intervention in eastern Ukraine.
I don't think I implied that Europe did nothing, merely that is has not shouldered enough responsibility.

Your remark,  "which may have had some relevance a decade ago " encapsulates the essence of my reaction in that NATO goes back many years and, over the years of its existence I really do not think that Europe has done it's fair share, population compared with popultion. It's not just a matter of picking up some ex-Europe examples over the past year where European diplomatic efforts have indeed been aligned with  US policy,. Nor has, for example, Climate Change activities much to do with NATO in this respect. What I am thinking about is the amount of personnel and treasure that Europe has been prepared to supply in support of NATO. There were reasons for it in the early days but as Europe recovered from the WW2 period we have left the US to carry much of the cost.
30
DnD Central / Re: The American 2016 Presidential Elections & The Ongoing American Saga
Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
Quote from: string on
As an outsider looking in, Hilary Clinton looks to be a much safer pair of hands than Trump
Crooked and inept politicians are to be preferred? :) Trump is a wild card, granted. But the world has become the equivalent of the the children's card game War — otherwise known as 52-pick up. (At least that's how I remember it…!)

Like I said, I am an insider looking in, not that that stops any of us offering a view on the matters in this forum, but the claims about Hilary Clinton smell like political spin to me rather than real substance. I can only really judge on the policies that I have heard expounded and what they actually say.

Clinton passes that test for me whereas Trump does not. He has said so many silly things that I cannot see him as a President who would do good by America or would do anything but debase America's reputation in the world.
33
DnD Central / Re: NATO nonsense
Does anyone rally think that if NATO did not exist, Putin would not have, by now, "liberated" the Russian-speaking populations from their Eastern European overlords? Unfortunately we need to keep tis alliance.

I do sympathise, however, with US annoyance that Europe is getting their defence on the cheap, It was understandable in the '50s and maybe the '60s but not now.
35
DnD Central / Re: Scottish Nationalist ignorance
I suppose not many hear have looked at the PM Question Time which rjh was referring to in his OP, but I did and can confirm what he said about it.

A little background though; The SNP is Scotland is single-mindedly pursuing a policy of independence for Scotland regardless of the result of the Scottish Referendum and it dominates everything they do. The Strategy in Westminster, where they have several Members of Parliament, is to disagree with everything and whinge about the rest. It is part of a general strategy of sowing discord in the UK in the hope that Scottish and English will turn against each other and increase the chances of Scottish separation. Fortunately it has not had quite that effect since the majority of opinion in Scotland has, by the latest poll, shown much the same as it was during the Referendum a couple of years ago.

The PM Question time differed from the usual formal with a lot of tributes and good wishes given for Cameron's future extended by all sides of the house, spiced with humour and only the mildest of political digs. The SNP were quite different and I would imagine that most non-SNP in Scotland were embarrassed by the SNP display of surly hostility. It was clearly partr of the enrqal policy of sowing enmity .

There is some chance that the SNP Government will go for a new referendum on some pretext; not a great chance however  because they want to make sure the dice is loaded in their favour first. They calculated that Brexit (a silly decision in my view) would annoy the Scots (who voted strongly against it) and tip the balance in their favour but this has not happened. If the SNP organise a Referendum I doubt that it will be given legal status by the UK Government on several grounds, not the least of which is that a Referendum has just been held and also that there is insufficient case made for another referendum during this period of flux.
37
DnD Central / Re: Apple vs. the FBI
The whole business has been fishy from the start.

It must surely have been in Apple's interest to have it put about that their phones were invulnerable to hacking into. Sell more phones that way.

It must also have been in the FBI / CIA / the whole lot of them, to have it thought that they did not know what was in the phones until such time as it became common knowledge. Catch more villains that way.

Now it's gone into muddying-the-water time.
40
DnD Central / Re: Today's Bad News
Today's bad news for me is that my internet is going belly up for a whil3e.

We get our internet courtesy of the people upstairs here in Mallorca who are leaving tomorrow (moving back to the UK) and,of course will be turning off their landline.
 
So with no alternatives, it will just be furtive looking at the internet via a phone in internet-blessed cafes from now on. until mid June.

Will try to make the odd niss-spelt daft comment though
 
Such is life
44
DnD Central / Re: The Likes Poll Thread
The trouble is that "Like" and "not like" can both be destructive and in the end mean little, especially in a small forum.

Perhaps the facility could be used for something else, like "like" being used to denote "post worth discussing more" which would a less personal comment.
45
DnD Central / Re: The American 2016 Presidential Elections & The Ongoing American Saga
As someone from the other side of the pond, I would enjoy poking fun at all of that, but I have to admit that we have our share of political combat consisting almost entirely of using labels. So no high minded scoffing there,  Maybe somewhere policies are actually discussed rather than caricatures.

My theory, therefore, is that Trump is actually a communist because he wants to build a wall round Mexico.

There seems to be some meat in the matter of open beer bottles though. It a matter of national policy? Is Hilary espousing a policy of making it illegal not to leave toilet seats down?

What are the real issues that matter.

So far I think my dime (wouldn't  bet more than that) would be on Hillary.
46
DnD Central / Re: Fear of China
Quote from: Colonel Rebel on

Quote from: rjhowie on

China is being getting the propaganda braining of late due to the increasing economic progress and that it will in due time overtake the world's leading imperialist country. Sending warships to the Far East does not help either over wee islands as an excuse.

Keynesian economic policy on Chinese steroids may well fully engulf China before they overtake us on the projected 2050 timetable.

I might add that since you lot have nothing but a bunch of rock islands, the Falklands, and Gibraltar, Denmark is the de facto leading imperialist country, as they still retain Greenland in their empire.  :rolleyes:


Ah, but we have a plot to take back America. The first stage is to get people to speak with a British Accent which is being achieved by flooding American films ( not films not movies) with British Actors. Trump is actually an escapee from one of our lunatic asylums.
47
DnD Central / Re: Europe's Migrant Crisis
Rihanna can speak for himself but I suspect it is because it is overtly Nationalistic. From the English perspective it is anti english but it is also anti Unionist Scottish.

It probably did not matter a few years ago but the Scottish Referendum has divided Scotland and increased sensitivities.

Of course Scotland is not the only country to have such outmoded hostilities in their National Anthem.
48
DnD Central / Re: The American 2016 Presidential Elections & The Ongoing American Saga
I must confess, as a non American, I'm at a loss about what to think about the competition to be the Republican Candidate. The only one to have caught my eye is Mr Trump because he seems a belly laugh a minute; the rest seem, well, ordinary.

As far as I understand it, if Trump wins the public vote, the delegates have the mandate to overrule that and vote for someone they like who would not do the damage that Trump would. If it came to that who would win the delegates vote? I.e. Not the public vote.