Iz 🌟

YES AELANDOR NOT PUNISHED BY VOTING LATE this is one of their best entries in a while, was hoping it'd do the business

Great to be through so early! thank you everyone x Looking mostly good for qualifiers so far, I have seen a good number of faves through already.

looking forward to this, if only to compare the results against the speculation need 'Fortuna' through though, hope it was comfortably in.

The most disappointing thing is that the ruling, quite apart from being stressed that it was not an excuse to attack any group over another (which the media, TERFs and now politicians are roundly ignoring), was just saying that the text of the Equalities Act was not being superseded by the Gender Recognition Act. This is therefore a sign that the language of the Equalities Act needs updating to cover eventualities such as trans people. If the Labour Party had a fucking spine, they would begin working on that legislation to update the law. Instead, they seem to have forgotten they are a government with a huge majority to actually make law, and they are all folding as they, like most other political parties on this aisle, begin the futile task of chasing an ever-shrinking group of voters, who are all going to vote the most reactionary party anyway.

From the outside, an excellent and kindly pope, the Catholic Church has had a great representative for the last 12 years and we can only hope the next is as focused on the topical issue of inequality across the world. RIP. Surviving to make one last appearance at Easter may well have been on his mind. Will also be interested to see what happens at the conclave.

IGORRR - ADHD Two months ago we sent a shitpost (lovable) J-Pop song, last month we sent a shitpost (lovable) folk-metal song, and this month it's the turn of breakcore out of my genre catalogue to get our current brand of whimsy applied to it. Igorrr were last sent by the esteemed Zechonia way back over 10 years ago, but the French genre-bending musician has done a lot since that entry, delving weird and wonderful soundscapes and videos. ADHD is a similarly weird song, using opera, metal, breakcore and baroque sensibilities to produce a unique and enjoyable listening experience. (a note about the video, and this will be noticed if you use the Youtube playlist, it does use AI, which is something I would normally be against, but it's built from the same base that the animator (Meat-Dept) for the video of their 2020 song Very Noise made, and I'll just share what Igorrr's team and Meat-Dept said about that in the video description and let you make your own mind up on it)

oh it's definitely BABYMETAL Su-metal was 15, which is insane enough to be fronting songs like this with such energy, but Yui and Moa were 13 AND doing support vocals both clean and harsh AND credited on lyrics and music. All from being plucked from what was supposed to be a normal idol path, they all did incredibly (and indeed Su, Moa and Momo are still making incredible music in their 20s). shoutout as it's very borderline, to Ado who released her debut 'Usseewa' on the day before her 18th birthday; a song that is essentially the Japanese 'okay boomer'.

putting in a request for Monday for semi 1 then, I'm not sure I can do Sunday.

Interesting insight, thanks for that RFC! I have been minded to keep an eye on Ashfield, it's an interesting place politically and hopefully something gets in the eye of Lee Anderson. Keeping an eye on Cornwall Council, I don't live there anymore but I was acquainted with some in the Cornish Lib Dems back when I did, and it may well go back into their control.

Frightening stuff. This isn't the end either, these TERF groups are going to use this ruling (which it looks to me like they just read the language of the Equality Act and clarified it according to intent of the drafters, who probably did not consider this) as basis to start mandating anti-trans legislation. It's eroding protections for a vulnerable group, ffs.

</3 early hype to Terra Avium from the opposite semi, I felt like I'd heard of Kashiwa before (he soundtracked a rather well known anime film which is probably it) and this sounds like a stunner! semi 1 listenthrough tomorrow sounds great, very interested to get a lowdown of what looks like quite a memorable semi

I know it would open up an unfortunate precedent about the EU "controlling their member states' politics" but I wish they'd just kick Hungary out of the club for stuff like this. It's a more sinister story than most authoritarian nations around the world because it's happening within the supposed democracy sphere. Orbán and his government need to be gone. This is the sort of thing you'd wish there'd be mass protest for.

Would definitely love more of these, indie contests (both the anything-goes UP and the guitar Nuggets) are the best of the extra contests IMO and though I have been trying to cut back on the amount of extra contests I do I'm always up for something like this. though I do need to organise my thoughts enough to choose what to send here, give me a moment.

Locking this thread for now until such time as something substantial (e.g. BBC breaking news alert) comes out about the case, nothing more to be gained from going over tabloid articles about it.

Sure, and there might be an argument for avenues of profitability, potentially including steel tariffs in the future should this actually go into full nationalisation... but I think it's a limited and relatively unimportant point to make right now, as under a nationalised industry, an interim good like steel isn't facing many of the same price pressures as other goods because it can go on in part to be used by other public bodies, and the company's profitability is secondary to its strategic importance, that's why today's legislation went through, which isn't nationalisation, just the Business Secretary now has control over the plant so that the Chinese owners couldn't shutter the plant and halt its important productions. Plus I'm sure Liam is the type of person who likes to see governments do things, and this is a pretty clear example of the government just doing things very effectively when faced with an emergency; it's the type of action I would expect him to support. It's surprising that that is his angle because tariffs aren't even on anyone's radar on this topic, all the major parties are supporting this move, and nationalisation =/= protectionism. Honestly the greater concern is that it's a strategy that goes against the good work that Miliband was doing to move our energy grid more renewable, if it turns out we're continuing to make steel.

jesus christ you're like a loaded spring waiting to seize upon any point to make your 'tariff good' dogma look good, even when it's about something happening that based on your posts lately, you should support, as it is a somewhat realistic approach to saving manufacturing in a part of the industry of a modern Western country. With the market value so low, there's not that much cost, and for the future: do you know that it needs to make a profit? It's a keystone industry that can support defence and others within its operation, I can't say I know enough about where its steel goes to confidently make this assertion, but bringing it within the nationalised sphere is good strategically for the government, and protects its manufacturing jobs from the private market. this is more about securing our own supplies of steel than affecting the economic market of steel anyway

It's nationalisation without compensation* day (for steel), based. Emergency session for Parliament pushing through the nationalisation in Scunthorpe seems to be going well and well received across the political spectrum, always nice to see. *sure, there is some cost associated from it, but from my understanding it's mostly ripping it out of control of the owners no matter what they say.

Definitely watch at least the original film - it's a classic of anime movies possibly second in importance after only Akira! I've always heard good things about the Stand Alone Complex anime from the early 00s but never managed to get round to seeing it. As ever with remakes, someone will have to tell me they're a good effort and worth seeing before I prioritise them over the originals.

good topic The most right-wing belief I have is probably my sense of the importance of personal responsibility, and that society only works when people strive to be the best they can be. Though it's a standard I only really apply to myself, I would rather encourage than force it on others. It validates my choice of leftism in that I'm not advocating for it out of a sense of laziness, more so that the safety net of society is there when people can't follow that ideal.

Assuming this isn't some weird caching issue that is only showing up for an individual person, as I've noticed it a couple of times too, my guess is a difference between how threads created before the upgrade are displayed in Invision and for threads created after. Could be when bumping an old thread, the code that recognises threads have been bumped to the top of the list doesn't recognise old threads. (possibly only really old threads, as certainly threads from 2024 are on 'last post' right now but I can't think what would be materially different about them) If anyone's noticed this more consistently that bumping old threads leads to this issue or has experienced the issue with a newer thread, shout, as that would disprove it. A tag issue could also be causing it but possibly less likely.

UK economy far exceeds forecasts to grow 0.5% in boost to Rachel Reevesbabe wake up, it's time for the latest entry in my favourite genre of headlines: 'UK economy number slightly goes up/down in boost/blow to Rachel Reeves'. Notable because the number, 0.5% growth for February, is higher than we were expecting. Probably will get revised down, but economy growth good, right?

An unfortunate side-effect of, well, the Trump era (or to give it a more explanatory name, the internet bubble era), is that people search narratives out that reinforces what they already believe, and then argue for it in discussions like this, should they ever encounter anyone who thinks differently, without considering that their mind can be changed. People do it all over the spectrum, though it is more prevalent on the extremes and certainly so on the populist right, who become loyal to a figure like Trump. I (and I hope other regular contributors) would like this to be a place where discussion takes place around somewhat verifiable facts, such that we state our analysis and consider others - as though this were a debate club (though jokes and memes about the state of politics are always very welcome too, don't misunderstand me). I created the new pinned thread recently to help with that if people wanted to look for good places to start their research. Eventually if certain posters continue showing their lack of understanding of most things, then one would hope that people reading would not side with them. I'm not trying to convince Liam S, personally, because over the last 8 months or so he's shown he's a credulous cheerleader for the methods of anti-establishment cult of personality politicians (though often being careful to avoid outright siding with them) and has shown no sign of ever caring about the harms they cause or threaten to cause in favour of his own moral crusades, but challenging his arguments so that they do not go unchallenged is quite enjoyable (up to a point) and I hope reinforces my points to anyone reading. It's not like he's NEVER made a point I agree with either. (also I am starting to realise I have a bad habit of paragraphing up threads in here beyond what is normally acceptable so tl;dr, I would like more debates and discussions with people who are willing to consider their mind can change too!)

Also, lol no. Reject simplistic politics like this, always. While we often use the popularity of policies to argue for their worth, that does not mean that vox populi is always vox dei. The people can be wrong. Generally politicians do try to implement manifestos, of course, but you should not trust any politician that tries to push through an unworkable and harmful policy just because it was part of their winning platform. In the case of tariffs, it was almost certainly not a winning reason for Trump and it is his fervent ideological belief, not that of his voters, that is driving this. To an extent in our current system, elections and democracy do indeed operate within a reasonable framework and it is hard to break out of it (doesn't mean that that's a good thing). Of course it matters how you break such a system, and in my view, it's good to make the system as good as it possibly can be before breaking it.

I can argue against the logic. Try this. No, or very few, companies like the one you describe in your first paragraph exist. They will be dwarfed by the amount of China-based businesses selling a basic commodity or material to the whole world, who will not care for losing some American customers, certainly not enough to relocate a factory over and pay American workers high salaries in exchange for a limited extra customer base. The goods they are selling to the US will just go up in price for American consumers, and if they are left with a surplus, more for the rest of the world. Meanwhile, some of those consumers are not members of the public, but actual American businesses who are making complex products at tight margins. They will be importing lots of these basic materials from China, plastics, batteries, textiles, packaging, whatever it is, to make their product, because that's how it goes in an era of mass production where common stuff that everyone needs is manufactured in China, even if they try to source some materials from America, almost certainly something they need will only reasonably be made in China. The tariffs will hit them hard, possibly putting them out of business. Trump therefore destroys or severely disrupts the business chain of innovative companies in his country while barely affecting the profit margins of Chinese businesses. (below is an example of a small business owner vaguely connected to my social media circles who has been experiencing the exact scenario in the above paragraph, just so you have a real example of the above) It's not really got any cheaper for base good American manufacturers that there are either. They may not even be able to undercut Chinese companies even with stupidly high tariffs. I've said a LOT in previous posts about how it's no good for the American end consumer, but tariffs aren't good for American businesses either, except in the rare scenario that EVERYTHING they need to run their business can be produced in America, they are already competing with imported goods, and their industry allows them to produce at scale while paying American workers decent salaries.

Glad to see that like clockwork the tariffs-go-tariffs-pause pendulum has resumed. Good news in that it's not quite economic meltdown, but this really betrays his lack of a backbone. The humongous tariffs between US/China that effectively mean a cessation of trade between the world's two largest economies won't last either, he's trying to isolate China and grab a clear win out of this embarrassment (almost definitely someone in his administration did not calculate tariffs correctly on that original board and they have been figuring out a way to climb down from that insanity), but because so many materials are made in China it's going to legitimately financially destroy lots of businesses, big and small, in America very fast (and so no, you won't be secure with your company in the US), so likely there'll be a push to resolve that soon. Feel like we are going to be doing this for the next 90 days, the status quo but with prices noticeably higher because Trump has managed to sneak a 10% tax on everything coming from abroad. Which will eventually be felt by American consumers. It's not a reset of the status quo, just more neoliberal bullshit with extra taxes (and not spent on anything good likely).