US Politics

centrist dads

Bring it.

I do hope that the attempt to paint WW2 as the war against Nazi communism makes the far-right chaps with Swastika tattoos feel conflicted.

how the fuck can any discussion happen if you are not sure?

It doesn't. In spiderpieland you ultimately just get two groups of people hurling insults at each other, each convinced in their own moral superiority and the total moral turpitude of the other camp. Since everything is binary and black and white there's no scope for discussion, and usually no attempt either.

Judean People's Front? Splitters!

If it's so easy to win massive damages, why not sue? 🤔

(PS having read more about Gill v Anagnost, it's pretty amazing. Gill [as of May anyway] continued to post billboards whilst appealing the verdict. So presumably the damages continue to mount. The original damages would almost certainly be overturned at the appellate though, the calculations seem to be pretty arbitrary).

why you little why i oughta!

Cost, potential reputational damage, possibility of losing, to name but three. In the case of the Clintons, having pots of money and a largely externally-funded lifestyle already is probably a fourth.

Yeah, as I was trying to point out a few pages back, the higher evidentiary standard to prove defamation in the US exposes the Clintons to a level of personal transparency they'd rather keep private. Even if it means being publicly accused of murder (Vince Foster), fraud (Whitewater), or treason (teh emailz).

I think they'd get the same level of personal intrusion in this country - so far as I'm aware the laws on disclosure in defamation cases isn't that different in the two jurisdictions - although the burden of proof in the US is more on the Claimant than the Defendant, even if the standard of proof is the same in both countries.

Right, sorry, it's the burden of proof on the plaintiff in the US that makes defamation cases so difficult. That pesky First Amendment.

Anyway, thanks for clearing things up. Have you considered moving to the states to practice in the lucrative field of social media torts? Apparently that's a thing.

Anyway, thanks for clearing things up. Have you considered moving to the states to practice in the lucrative field of social media torts? Apparently that's a thing.

Ha, not a chance. Never even visited the States, partly on grounds of principle. If I was driven by money, I'd just do more work.

Anyway, maintaining a long distance relationship between the UK and mainland Europe is hard enough without adding multiple time zones and transatlantic flights into the mix. Although from April 2019 that may seem like the easier option.

Nail meet head

save some of that boot for me!

seriously though you don't know me or my politics. I have plenty of time for nuance but best-worst-ism is not that. McCain would only deserve praise in contrast to the horror of the extremist Republican party. He was a run of the mill free market neocon bastard who just happened to be good on the telly and enjoyed trolling the president. Liberals and their idols, man.

Politics is big boy stuff and these guys play with real people's lives. All I'm saying is that the world would have been better off without John McCain - his occasional ineffectual grandstanding does not exonerate him.

totally. it's amusing to read the attempts at justifying McCain's awful record in the rag on Trump thread of all places.

this liberal obsession with civility and principle is an interesting Trump-era phenomenon, though. apparently now acting with principle is enough to forgive even the most awful crimes. perform with a bit of basic human decency towards your fellow bourgeois lizard overlords and your misdeeds will be celebrated by every centrist around.

we've lost all sense of the meaning of service to the public if McCain can be considered, without irony, a public servant.

Well, the sort of ultra-partisan, scorched earth/zero-sum politics you favour do seem to be very fashionable at the moment, “everyone who isn’t me is a cunt” is the new Arrospok

McCain would only deserve praise in contrast to the horror of the extremist Republican party.

Contrast him with e.g. Blair or Cameron or even JRM. If he were in the UK he would be universally hated.

everyone who isn’t me is a cunt

So like commuting in central London then?

#amidoingitrite?

when did I call anyone a cunt? you can write off left politics as "scorched earth/zero-sum" but i'm not ready to drop my distain for so-called public servants who spend their careers deliberately worsening people's lives as a matter of principle.

kicker is McCain did apparently very publicly call his wife a cunt, but perhaps she was one i didn't know her.

Well, the sort of ultra-partisan, scorched earth/zero-sum politics you favour do seem to be very fashionable at the moment, “everyone who isn’t me is a cunt” is the new Arrospok

I think it's always been very fashionable in the hard left ideology-driven world, where if you don't sign up to every aspect of the ideology in question you're a scum-sucking weasel splitter who the world would be better off without. After all, Monty Python were satirising that mindset nearly 40 years ago. It does seem to have spread though.

Never even visited the States

You're not missing much. Pretty decent bagels.

I spent 24 years living within 2 miles of Golders Green. I've had my fill of good bagels. In fact, my father still has a flat opposite Daniel's Bagel Bakery, which does a damn fine bagel.

positions i've taken in this thread:

• racism and the use of racist slurs is bad without exception
  
• US imperialism has taken and ruined the lives of millions of people around the world and should be curtailed
  
• john mccain was not a good person
  
  

do you disagree with any of those things? if so then i'm sorry mate but i'm happy to leave you behind.

Well, that's the position you think you've taken. Reading your posts, I'd say you take the position of a very angry Internet warrior.

I do kinda agree with some of your points, when I can be bothered to find them. But if you want to have a constructive discussion, please calm it down.

^ tone police are here.

Trump is throwing a fit because google is showing too many negative articles about him

https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/28/technology/donald-trump-google-rigged/

Also, McCain was a warmongering imperialist cunt who died with blood on his hands. Honestly shocked that anyone is eulogising him just because he was a polite debater or whatever.

"Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" - John McCain (to the tune of Barbara Ann)

It's been a long day :) (in response to greenhell)