US Politics

Top lels

Yuk

This is good
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/my-week-sean-spicer-fbmq5l2vf?shareToken=7cdf953037288b14e13ffc0471bb2161

a ray of sunshine in the darkness...

remember kids, nazi punching is always OK.

Google recalling staff currently abroad that might be affected by the latest executive order.

awesome!

Things I've thought today:

I wonder if Russian sanctions were discussed at the Trump/May meeting.

If you draw a map of developing geopolitical relationships, the UK is, more and more, looking to be part of the "baddies."

Erdogan is a genius.

I don't want to be one of the baddies. I'm going to suggest that I open our first Stockholm office when I go into work on Monday.

Nor do I. But, I also love London (where I've not spent more time than any other place, and most of my adult life!) and don't want to go back to Canada.

Although the pollution is getting a bit much...

A bit???

Nor do I. But, I also love London (where I've not spent more time than any other place, and most of my adult life!) and don't want to go back to Canada.

I had some time to kill today so I went to the Natural History Museum - living in London is handy sometimes.

But - it's filthy, it's expensive, etc etc. And now, it would appear, it's demonstrably the capital of a country that as you say is one of the baddies.

the UK is, more and more, looking to be part of the "baddies."

Have we ever been one of the "goodies"?

Serious question, we spent most of the last 500 years waging war with anyone who wanted a fight, plundering other countries of their wealth, including their populations for a particularly grim period of history, and generally being about as nasty as you can get. The inevitable decline of our empire saw a slight reigning in of our hard power, but I don't think we've ever really been a proper 'goodie', except maybe for 5 years in the 1940s when we helped defeat one of the nastiest figures in world history.

I've only been around for 8% of that time period, specifically the post WWII period (well, just over half of that actually) when things like rule of law, welfare state, NHS and a moderately ethical foreign policy (or, possibly, one I didn't pay as much attention to) allowed you to feel ok about being British.

It's just so brazen now - we're Trump's lackey, by intent, because we've turned our back on the other federation of allied states that this world contains.

You're point is important and well taken, and my answer is I don't know. I think it would be wrong to assume any nation has a clean record. Britain, by nature of having been an empire, has a much worse record than most. But I suppose my concern is with now and the coming years/decades.

.

we probably bunged them a few quid for a good score.

...

1 Attachment

the corruption index that was released last week.

I don't know how corrupt the UK is, and I don't know how relevant it is to the issues I'm concerned with, but I will draw your attention to the word that comes after "corruption" and before "index" in that image. The CPI is, as far as I'm aware of, mostly used as an indicator for investment, rather than a way of normatively ranking whether a country is part of the "baddies" or "goodies."

How could they get the score for North Korea?

wtf is "corruption perception"?! who do they ask?

Was that before or after the Rolls Royce admission of dbious payments to 3rd parties and a considerable fine?

Or this report: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/27/uks-super-rich-appear-to-get-special-deal-from-hmrc-says-watchdog

That was a seemingly controversial post, so I've removed it.

Don't sweat it, man. If you think others are overreacting, fight for your position. I'd fucking love some good news.