Random Rant Thread

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I think despite the fact that most of the aggressive rhetoric came from the British side, the party who actually treated Brexit as a war was the EU. All along.

This is such a failure on the British political leaders and bureaucracy's part.

Some of the deals even look plain unfair to British people. There should be renegotiations ahead.

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Yes, it's true that many British businesses have been completely spoiled in the EU environment of free movement and free trade. The EU is the world's biggest, nastiest protectionist bloc after all, and you definitely shouldn't expect the coziness that you grew accustomed to while you were a member after the divorce. Everyone outside the EU must use their wit to do business around such a gigantic protection racket, so Britons *basically* have to swallow it and live with it too. Welcome to the non-EU world, etc.

But I think there ought to be some renegotiations on some particular issues. I can't say which ones, but this might create enormous resentment among Britons without some talks.

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From The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx.



Heard this story very recently, haven't we.

So, first as tragedy, second as farce, and third as what?

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Jan 9, 2021 13:19:18 GMT 1 miscmisc said:

She's a local in my area in the US.

Another typical case of pampered American middle-class upbringing. Has never stepped outside her safe space, and doesn't have a clue about reality.

Her career in the mainstream space is over.

Arrested.

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There will be no peace in America as long as ground-level right-wingers continue to believe that a gay NYU anthropology professor drinking latte and reading a Jane Austen book at a Bedford street cafe in West Village is the "elitist elite" that looks down on them and controls their lives.

It's the ugly fat Republican men golfing in a Florida golf course with custom-made masks on (pre-existing conditions, so can't take risks) as we speak that truly look down on them and control their lives.

This can't be stressed enough.

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This is true.

Donald fit in there pretty nicely, but the party was already absolutely ready for the gig.

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Yes, it would be absolutely silly (and dangerous) of British people to latch onto some stupid victimhood narrative since...well, they got what they wanted.

But that's exactly why there must be gradual reconvergence to happen over the next several years, or even decade.

And I do understand the Brussels position of why the fuck we have to give a shit about those arrogant people, not a member anymore, so no more membership benefit, FUCKING SIMPLE AS THAT.

Sure, sure. It's primarily Britain's fault. But I'm neither British nor EU citizen, so have a different, more holistic perspective.

It just seems bad in terms of geopolitics. I suspect it will hit British economy way harder than economists like Krugman predicted. WAY harder. I'm flabbergasted by the complete lack of preparedness on British business's part, and very much doubt that they will be able to "get used to" the new environment. A few industries might simply collapse.

And I really don't think the UK can afford to get hit hard in the agricultural sector now, but it IS getting hit. We don't know how hard but it is getting hit.

I just hope I'm wrong, but things look pretty bad now. I'm worried about what this will do to UK politics down the road. This really seems to me to be going to amount to much more than the mere pain of an economic transition.

To put it simply, I assumed that the British elites knew what they were doing. I somehow overrated those people.

And I see English blowhards still puffing and huffing spewing face-palm-worthy nonsense that would rival the election fraud craziness in the US. Are they just lying through their teeth, or simply clueless? I can't really tell. 

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As I said ages ago, James should've left the empire, you know, ages ago.

James Murdoch blasts US media for unleashing ‘insidious forces’
Comments from Rupert’s son are his strongest rebuke of industry practices since leaving the family business
www.ft.com/content/9eab68e1-7afb-4282-95fa-3149bd091efa

By "US media" he means primarily his father's - and his, until recently - enterprise.

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There has to be some serious mea culpa for this:

This guy has even more power than Tegnell in Sweden, and was preaching to *Kiwis*, of all people, the ill of lockdown and virtue of herd immunity.

These Swedes were *actively* trying to discourage other countries from implementing strict measures including lockdown, with an incredibly patronizing attitude to boot. I don't know what made the Finnish epidemiologists change their mind, but thank god they did.

These people aren't just Swedish; They represent the official Swedish government on the issue of infectious diseases. They are as official as official can get.

That's why it's problematic.

As I always said, people make mistakes. Could happen even to the smartest person. But you must own the mistakes. These Swedes have shown zero signs of doing so despite their spreading their "fake news," if you will, internationally.

They were basically saying to us, "Watch us, you fools, we are building up herd immunity in our country while you are getting a false sense of security with those stupid lockdowns and masks and whatnot, and in the next wave, which will DEFINITELY come, you'll be drowning in the Covid sea while we will be enjoying our normal winter life."

What a normal winter life with 100+/10M people dying of Covid every fucking day. Big mouths ought to be punished especially since so many people listened to those big mouths and got infected with the herd immunity fever through their fucking droplets.

There is a fundamental global problem underlying all the troubles in the world, and that's their refusal to take responsibility, the lack of mechanism to make sure they have to pay *some* price for their errors.

We let them get away with everything. We MUST hold these people accountable, no matter what kind of an issue it is. 

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Note the word "entertainers" there.

These people are completely infected with this stupid notion that people like Brad Pitt and Lady Gaga are "elites."

Extremely, extremely confused people, with a huge issue of resentment and complex.

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Twitter has already banned many accounts on the basis of misinformation. Why does Alex Berenson, who's been spreading so much misinformation about Covid-19 nonstop for almost a year now, still have his account intact?

This charlatan has been literally killing people. I know a couple of nobody accounts that have been banned due to spreading lies on Covid-19, but somehow the likes of Berenson (my personal MVP of Covid denial 2020), Levitt (Nobel Laureate Covidiot) and Cummins (the worst Covidiot "blogger") still keep splaying crap all over the place.

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Jan 15, 2021 19:29:06 GMT 1 miscmisc said:

Jan 9, 2021 13:19:18 GMT 1 miscmisc said:

She's a local in my area in the US.

Another typical case of pampered American middle-class upbringing. Has never stepped outside her safe space, and doesn't have a clue about reality.

Her career in the mainstream space is over.

Arrested.

Now asking for a pardon.

Her pampered upper-class life where she could get anything she wanted by saying "I'd like to speak to the manager" in this exact tone is coming to an end. 

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As for the scandal in the Netherlands, I suppose it actually goes deeper than what has been reported in non-Dutch media (e.g. anti-immigrant bias?), but a typical reaction from an American for example would be, "Er, that's it? The government 'resigns' for THAT?"

A huuuuuuuuge number of EITC recipients are wrongly accused of fraud every year in the US, but no one cares.

The parliamentary system is superior (the government would just "apologize" and move on in Japan, though).

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QAnon managed to poison so many Americans' minds during the pandemic. And the problem is that it goes far beyond the evangelical Christians.

The numbers were shocking back in the summer already as I warned you here, and I'm pretty sure that millions more people have joined the cult since then.

Do you think that Capitol siege and subsequent arrests will do anything to stop the train? Of course not. Don't be silly.

Many of the Q crazies were Obama voters, and even Hillary voters, but will never vote Democratic ever again. Consequently Republican will all but court those voters, which is why they rather encouraged the QAnon fire if anything. Those neo-Birchers will be a massive base for the Republican Party.

And that's the main reason why the US politics is only going downhill. I've said absolutely nothing smart or original or even interesting in this post, but that's the hard reality that somehow few are talking honestly about.

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This pandemic has been such an incessant series of shocking "Emperor Has No Clothes" moments nonstop for the US and some other wealthy countries.