Iz 🌟

The PM against past PMs poll is interesting, but less useful compared to the 'best choice for PM' poll that went out recently. In fact, given Starmer is riding only just below those figures that are still in politics to a reasonable degree, not all that bad. I also don't think what he is likely to do with Trump matters too much for opinion, he's clearly not aligned with him on Ukraine, he's willing to talk to Trump on items that are directly about British interests. Certainly no sign he'd do a Blair at this juncture. Those opinions of Trump/Zelensky just show to me very clearly that Reform has a ceiling - they are operating on a fundamentally different world from most of the voting population.

This is probably the modus operandi, if there is one. It would be one thing if it were the US doing realpolitik, accepting that they cannot beat Russia with Ukraine so they're going for peace instead. That would be disappointing, but reconcilable with the post-1989 international order. This is something else. Trump is repeating Kremlin lines and lies (paraphrasing: 'Ukraine's run by a dictator' (the brass neck on him here!), 'Zelensky's only got 4% popularity', 'Ukraine started the war'), Zelensky's right when he says there an air of misinformation around Trump, but all the misinformation and lies are just excuses, it's the US making preparations to align with Russia and accepting their line that they have 'spheres of influence' which in a world with the UN and self-determination should be a sentence that is never thought of let alone made policy. If you went back to any point in US history over the past century and floated the idea of US-Russia aligning, especially against the interests of Europe, it would be unthinkable. Which is what makes this so scary.

One positive is that Russians have indicated they don't have too much opposition to Ukraine joining the EU, which is interesting as it'd be hard to wage a future war against them as a member of that bloc. But then the accession process would take years and without government changes in Hungary and Slovakia, unlikely. But that's about the only positive and it's not even much of one. Seems as though Russia-US are close to reaching an agreement and 'concessions will be made by all sides', though doesn't sound like Russia are making many. Utterly despicable quisling betrayal of Ukraine going on right now.

Agreed, the one drop rule is very malevolent. There was a video going round earlier about somebody getting bold enough to call Rishi Sunak not British (quote: 'he's a brown Hindu, how can he be British'), which is an indication that something is not right with these people's heads.

Following up on this, and I did read into the case at this time to check it wasn't an egregious usage of immigration policy and surprise surprise, the family did have extenuating circumstances like being anti-Hamas and having a relative here willing to look after them, but a judge has criticised that exchange at PMQs for misrepresenting the situation: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgp47mpxgno Which I broadly agree with, once we have political figures questioning the motives of judges you start to get this situation where one side of the aisle loses trust in insitutional figures who are upholding the law and that's generally pretty dangerous. Umberto Eco #13 (yes I AM going to start quoting Ur-Fascism like bible verses) ties into this, the whipping up of outrage and populism (against 'lefty lawyers/judges', say) is used to delegitimise and sow distrust in these institutions. ~ on a more positive note, very pleased to see that the NHS waiting lists have come down and the Labour government can trumpet 'promise kept'. Sure it was probably helped a bit by the outgoing Tory government, but Streeting's being far less annoying and more competent than I expected him to be over at Health.

I don't know that there's much more to say really. Apparently it's just a fact that it's immigration and not anything else that have led to various economic woes and innovation slowdown among wealthy countries, rather than the various factors that come with a more educated populace used to a certain level of luxury. Utter stupidity dipped in outrage bait every time he posts. Oh and this: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/...ts-economy-soar Notably I also agree with what the article says at the end, that this is not enough to show that it's a trend, and Denmark shows another potential outcome, as their centre-left government has done well on a much harsher immigration policy, but undoubtedly having more people of working age and welcoming them has done Spain favours - and arguing that immigration slows down an economy and makes it worse off for its original residents is for the birds. Which is more charitable to opposing viewpoints than some here.

Aiobahn +81 - 天天天国地獄国 (feat. Nanahira & Pmarusama) eTplxWaAD8o Aiobahn is a South Korean producer who has been associated with Monstercat and is perhaps most well known for producing the theme songs to the video game 'Needy Streamer Overload' - those songs, 'Internet Overdose' and 'Internet Yamero' are rather fun J-Pop + Eurodance/rave messes, but not songs I ever thought good enough to share. Technically, 'Aiobahn +81' is a side-project of his, the '+81' meaning that it's an outlet for songs that are just for fun. Ironically then, the first song he's released under that name, 'Tententengokujigokugoku' (or the far more sensible 天天天国地獄国, which roughly means 'Heaven Heaven Heaven Hell') is by far the most controlled, rhythmic and well-structured song he's ever done IMO. As well as being very fun. Still that same rave-inspired dance-pop, just recruiting two well-known utaite (singers who got big covering vocaloid songs) to play the angel and devil characters here. Some useful Japanese words for you btw: 'Tengoku' - heaven 'Jigoku' - hell 'Tenshi' - angel 'Akuma' - devil or pretend I didn't post any of that and just enjoy whatever this is (complementary)

semi 1 looks great (in terms of song titles and possibly also for the song that's infected my brain), manifesting I have indeed come across a bunch of 'X the Maid's a while back, interesting subculture, can't recall exactly what songs I heard from them but Chikoi was definitely one of the more prominent ones.

Suede, Rooney and Severin have already made excellent points (particularly that detailed history of Ukraine and the lead up to the conflict that rebuffs the ridiculous reading of the conflict in the second post), but these posts betray such a misunderstanding of how geopolitics works, by the way they treat the collective will of European states as nothing more than a sideshow as opposed to a major player alongside Ukraine, Russia and the US and clearly the only pro-Ukraine force outside of Ukraine itself. Ukraine and Europe are under no obligation to recognise the outcome of talks that are made without their involvement; Europe represents actually more of the spending on Ukraine than the US does alone. Now hopefully America finds a bilateral US-Russia agreement unworkable for this reason and gives sufficient guarantees to Ukraine, and pressure from Europe will be part of why that happens if they do so. If America doesn't provide them, then maybe the UK and Europe will have to fill in. That's our business as one of Ukraine's closest allies and in our interest in further stopping Russian expansionism. Trump's style is not unique or clever, all it's achieved is giving Russia an enormous upper hand. That may be unconcerning to an isolationist America (in the short term, in the long term it will hurt) but it's vital for Europe/Ukraine that that doesn't happen. It's in Europe's interests to protect Ukraine, so they will do so if necessary. Ending the war is no good if Russia can restart it again when they choose. It's frustrating really because this unfortunate situation is entirely of the Trump administration's making, peace is maintained when democracies stand together against an outside threat, but America has essentially betrayed the liberal democratic order for selfish reasons and made the future of European security more precarious than it would otherwise be. Don't pretend that it's for peace, because the anarchic order (the antithesis of the liberal democratic order) is not a peaceful one.

Liam, it's also incredibly disingenuous to argue as if there aren't people who think these things as a major part of such a movement, we've seen it with the Charlottesville march in 2017, with Jan 6, with the Madison Square Garden rally in last year's election. For myself, I could not in good conscience be a part of a political project that allows such people in. Even for those who aren't literally white, the reason they are against immigration is often fear of an 'other' that they are not familiar with. Some people have economic concerns on their mind (some of which is pulling up the ladder), but well, it's a good thing that those people aren't (until now in America) making policy. Generally the strong right-wing base seems to be between 10-20% of a population - when political movements based in these win an election, they have often borrowed votes from a large number of apoliticals who have those above economic concerns. So no, I'm not calling everyone who currently says they will vote Conservatives and Reform a fascist, just a decent proportion of them (besides, the real bad guys are not the voters, its the politicians who enable and stoke their fears), and those that aren't may find their way back to Labour should the economy improve, and their counterparts in America may well return to the Democrat fold after a few years of Trump. The reason successive governments haven't addressed the so-called immigration issue is because it's pretty much universally not good policy to have lower immigration. It leads to a contracting economy, particularly in an educated one with a low birth rate. Hence the UK governments will look tough on immigration, but won't realistically bring it down too much. The 'Boriswave' was pretty egregious though and that's why Labour here are doing more than they otherwise might to curb it - though as an astute chap on QT said last week, they need to be looking for visa overstayers etc as those are the real illegal immigrants, not desperate asylum seekers fleeing persecution the only way that is left open to them in their situation. The public doesn't think in terms of policy, and no I'm not saying they're too stupid to understand, but they tend to be pretty short-termist as a whole and you can't follow public opinion fully on things like immigration. Vance's speech has been pretty widely derided, I mean, sure there's those of his base around Europe who loved it, because it's red meat for them, but it's not a good idea when Russia is a more existential threat. (each of those examples of crime I guarantee you is there because it's a newsworthy, unusual thing, not a sign of a trend - for the most part, Europe is a very safe continent; compared to America - this is a good attitude to have to tabloid news, they will publish things to scare you so you keep engaging with their content, all they publish is the exception, not the norm).

give me your local genre experimentation, all of it (+ ich komme) 01 Finland: Erika Vikman - Ich Komme 02 Lithuania: Katarsis - Tavo akys 03 Albania: Shkode Elektronike - Zjerm 04 Latvia: Tautumeitas - Bur men laimi mostly very good 05 Greece: Klavdia - Asteromata 06 Spain: Melody - Esa Diva 07 Malta: Miriana Conte - Kant 08 Luxembourg: Laura Thorn - La poupee monte le son 09 Belgium: Red Sebastian - Strobe Lights 10 Poland: Justyna Steczkowska - Gaja 11 Montenegro: Nina Zizic - Dobrodosli average 12 Italy: Olly - Balorda Nostalgia 13 Ireland: Emmy - Laika Party 14 Ukraine: Ziferblat - Bird of Pray awful 15 Slovenia: Klemen - How Much Time Do We Have Left? 16 Norway: Kyle Alessandro - Lighter 17 Estonia: Tommy Cash - Espresso Machiato

out of a deck of bad choices, they somehow managed to select one of the worst and most boring even in that lineup sorry Norway, I'm against you this year

pretty decent I suppose, but it's really Italy on autopilot, it could grow on me but it feels a bit forgettable after its performed at the moment.

oh wow where did YOU come from Lithuania :wub: one good result out of the dreck that was last night

a cynical and boring attempt to cash in on the Kaarija/Baby Lasagna style of song (as in 'omg such a weird guy' + heavy production), but utterly failing to have any of the joy associated with those. this is surely going nowhere, it just looks odd and stilted on stage. estonia's poor sense of humour has been conned

'Kulm', 'mai ei tea sind', and Tommy Cash in the superfinal. two great possibilities and one awful one they're selecting Tommy Cash aren't they

Incorrect. @1890718365489975452 That's about 50% of the country putting Russia as the biggest risk, not to mention other party supporters. Reform's lead is nowhere near a majority of the country and it is incredibly unlikely to ever be. Don't appeal to this imagined majority of people who think their country is going 'in the wrong direction' or the biggest worry is 'changing of culture', it is such cowardly shit - it's so obviously code for 'don't like seeing more brown people on my streets' or 'I think the alphabet people are icky'. They're not correct and they are of limited size. But then, no matter their size, I'm not giving this dogwhistling credence. The sooner it has its downfall and the Republicans' amateur callousness runs up against the reality of people not liking their cruel policies, the better.

The thing that gets me most is why is the sitting US Vice-President, at a security summit in Europe, on the subject of the Ukraine-Russia war, lecturing his so-called allies about free speech and calling the greatest threat as 'from within'? Fascistic nonsense that cares not one bit about the murderous regime sitting on Europe's borders.

I agree in principle, I've long held nuclear disarmament and cutting in defence spending as something to aim for. Unfortunately doing it while also weakening the democratic international order by cosying up to dictators is just going to lead to a much more anarchic world situation where barriers to conventional conflict are lowered. edit: interesting to note that this thread has already surpassed the length of the previous 'general US politics' thread and we're less than a month out from the inauguration. while not an exact comparison as I started this thread in November 2024 and the previous thread was started in January 2021, we're in for a long ride.

Like Silas said, I really don't get this opposition to NATO by virtue of closeness, they could drop a base in eastern Estonia or Finland right now and it'd be just as close if not closer to Russia's major population centres than anything in Ukraine. NATO membership for Ukraine does functionally one thing and one thing only, it closes down a future route for further Putinist expansion for good. Any other security guarantees may work for a time, but would not be as binding, we may just wind up in the same position again. Europe needs to assert its own interests here, because they are under threat. Russia invading a democracy is quite literally the threat, Putin seeing democratisation and leaders of other countries no longer being bought by him and invading is something that should be resisted and punished. He will 100% move into Georgia if they ever overthrow their new Russian-friendly president and he will want to replace Zelensky with a regime favourable to Russia at the first opportunity. Breaking international law to invade another nation should in the 21st century be a punishing move that you NEVER come back from. Putin's just going to take it as carte blanche to do as he wishes in his area rather than seek any rapprochement within the wider international community. I don't want the war to continue going but capitulating to Russia does not lead to a good outcome and should be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately, the Americans have effectively torpedoed Ukraine's chances with their moves in the negotiations so far. The move to make major concessions right at the start by saying no chance of Ukraine 2014... I'm sorry to keep going back to this, but it's such an amateur move, Trump and Hegseth clearly have no idea what they're doing other than making friendly with Russia again as the sole outcome of the talks, which is a major betrayal of everything Ukraine has been fighting for. With this sort of approach, Putin's demands that Ukraine give up Zaporizhia and demilitarise may be something they are actually considering, which is the sort of ridiculous posturing they should be rejecting out of hand.

Also like, if you consider that 'Ukraine joining NATO' was a major reason for the conflict starting (I don't, it's a pretense to recapture territory inhabited by ethnic Russians/glory hunting, Russia has never been in any danger from a defensive alliance), then a good way to stop that happening is to put it to the question and resolve it, Ukrainian public didn't really want to join NATO before 2014, now of course it has massive public support. Russia blocking Ukraine joining NATO as part of the peace deal would IMO be a red line for Ukraine, how come Ukraine don't get to have any say in their fate according to some commentators?

I'll state this as plainly as I can, a deal where it's clear the US and Russia have dictated terms of surrender to Ukraine and Putin walks away with not just concessions, but a clear victory over his neighbour, is one that should be very worrying for the entire European continent. America will have basically bypassed European security to ensure peace no matter the cost, including an increase to defence spending for all of them - and it's the most likely strategy to lead to more conflict when Russia wants to come back for more. There need to be consequences for warlord imperialism to maintain the remarkable peace we have had in the international order post-war. 'Might makes right' is not a pretty international order to be in once a few more examples of it happen* - and for all the criticism of the US military machine, they've for the most part acted as a counterbalance against that post-1945, this is now an indication of them joining in. *if I were in Taiwan I would be very worried right now.

Whatever People Say I Am, Lungs, Hopes And Fears strike me as the three standouts, the former two real statements that changed the conversation around their genres and I just really like how 'Hopes And Fears' is put together for a soft rock album, never really gets dull whereas the Coldplay albums around it have several below par moments. not an amazing list of albums by any stretch

It's a simple and mostly satisfactory trade for Russia and Ukraine if Russia gets Crimea and the Donbas, which it has de facto control of anyway, while Ukraine gets to join NATO and permanently assure their security by being in a military alliance against their biggest threat. I don't see how what I'm suggesting is unreasonable to Russia or pro-continuing the war, Russia gets territory, and Ukraine knows they won't get more. Ukraine should be part of these negotiations though, not be a minor party while the US give up all their negotiating ground to the Russians. Looks like all the major European powers agree with me, they, and we, don't want an expansionist Russia that can get away with conquest - that does make NATO nations feel they have to spend more on defense.

How can a Ukraine that accepts peace where they cede the territory Russia has taken and cannot join NATO have assurances that Russia won't just come back for the rest whenever next convenient? It's giving away the Sudetenland levels of appeasement. They wouldn't join NATO while they have ongoing territorial disputes with Russia, sure, because that is against the terms of membership, but afterwards? Absolutely they should join, for the quite obvious protection that they need. If Russia doesn't like it then they can stop being belligerent, irredentist warlords.